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THE LIFE 



OF 



MRS. SHEIUVOOD 



AUTHOR OP "HENRY MILNER," " LADY OF THE MANOR," "STORIES 

ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM," " LITTLE HENRY 

AND HIS BEARER," &C. 



ABRIDGED FOR THE 

PRESBYTEKIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 



JIIoaa m 



PHILADELPHIA: ^7 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 

NO. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 



7/? ^4-41 



^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

JAMES DUNLAP, Treas., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BY 

JESPER HARDING & SON, 

NO. 57 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



PREFACE. 

The popularity of Mrs. Sherwood, as a wri- 
ter of religious narratives, will naturally create 
an interest in her biography. The great num- 
ber of persons, old and young, who have been 
charmed and instructed by her delineations of 
character, and descriptions of English and 
East Indian life, will be curious to know the 
particulars of her own history. The gratifying 
of this curiosity produces a rare example of 
devoted christian usefulness, in more self-deny- 
ing ways than authorship. It is for this reason 
more especially, that this volume has. been 
prepared for the Board of Publication, out of 
the materials furnished in the large volume of 
extracts from Mrs. Sherwood's journals, made 
by her daughter Mrs. Sophia Kelly, and pub- 
lished in London in 1854. 

J. H. 
Trenton, N. J. 



EXPLANATION OF HINDOSTANEE WORDS. 



Ayah — Lady's maid. 
Babalogue — Children, (little people.) 

Bungalow — House with room on one floor and thatched roof. 
Bazaar — Public market. 

Compound — The ground immediately round a house. 
C/terbuter — Mat. 
Dhaye — Child's nurse. 
Dawk — Post. 

Fakeers — Religious beggars. 
JmdiV.y — Fine muslin. 
Nautch — A dance. 
Pundit — A teacher. 
Pice — Copper coin. 

Palanquin — Covered vehicle borne on men's shoulders. 
Suttee — Burning of widows. 
Sais — Groom. 

Serai — Place of rest for travellers. 
Sepoy — Native soldier. 
Tope — Clump of trees. 
Tiffin — Lunch. 

Tonjon — Open vehicle borne by men. 
Yogces — Religious mendicants. 
Walla— Man. 
Moonshee — Teacher. 

Punkah — Fan suspended from the ceiling. 
(4) 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. PAGB - 
Birth. Education. Early exercise of imagination. Cov- 
entry. 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Juvenile compositions. Training at home. Removal to 

Kidderminster. " Hoc age." 16 

CHAPTER III. 
Abbey school at Reading. Roman Catholic influence. 22 

CHAPTER IV. 
Arley Hall. "The Traditions." Return to Stanford. 
" Margarita." Death of Mr. Butt. Bridgenorth Sab- 
bath-school. Bath. 29 

CHAPTER V. 
Marriage. Removal to India. Battle at sea. Calcutta. 
Dinapore. Birth of son. School. Berhampore. - 39 
CHAPTER VI. 
Birth of Lucy. Death of Henry. Doctrine of deprav- 
ity. "Infant Pilgrim." 9 46 

CHAPTER YII. 
Dinapore. Henry Martyn. David Corrie. Cawupore. 
" Indian orphans." Death of Lucy. - 50 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Notices of Henry Martyn. 56 

CHAPTER IX. 
Further notices of Henry Martyn. Voyage to Calcutta. 67 
1* (5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. pagb. 

Rev. Mr. Thomason. Rev. David Brown. Orphan asy- 
lums. Return to Cawnpore. Family at Mirzapore. 74 

CHAPTER XI. 

" Little Henry and his Bearer." Henry Martyn's congre- 
gation. Abdool Musseeh. " Indian Pilgrim." - 82 

CHAPTER XII. 

Henry Martyn's last Sabbath in Cawnpore. Schools of 
Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood. " Stories on Church Cate- 
chism." " Ayah and Lady." 90 

CHAPTER XIH. 
Meerut. " George Desmond." War.- - 103 

CHAPTER XIY. 
Permunund. Berhampore. Calcutta. Serampore mis- 
sionaries. Mr. May. Return to England. - - 117 

CHAPTER XV. 

Worcester. Wick. Orphans. Visit to France. "Henry 
Milner," and other books. Mrs. Fry. "Lady of the 

Manor." - 126 

CHAPTER XYI. 
The Regiment at Worcester. Hebrew "Types." Visit 
to the Continent. M.Malan. " The Little Mom iere." 

Sir Walter Scott. 131 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Visit to Bridgenorth. Remnants of the old Sabbath- 
school. 142 

CHAPTER XVin. 
Family changes. " Dictionary of Types." Death. - 147 



THE LIFE OF 

MRS. SHERWOOD 



CHAPTER I. 



BIRTH — EDUCATION EARLY EXERCISE OF IMAGINATION COV- 
ENTRY. 

Mary Martha Butt, afterwards Mrs. Sher- 
wood, was bora on the sixth day of May, 
1775. Her father was a clergyman of the 
Church of England, and at the time of her 
birth, was rector or pastor of Stanford, in 
Worcestershire. Both of her parents were 
persons of the highest education and refine- 
ment, and being possessed of abundant means, 
their family enjoyed the best advantages of 
comfort and improvement. At an advanced 
period of her life, Mrs. Sherwood said, "Few 
have travelled farther, or perhaps seen more 
than I have, but yet, in its peculiar way, I 
have never seen any region of the earth to be 
compared with Stanford." The parsonage- 

O) 



8 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

house commanded four distinct views of the 
most beautiful landscapes, combining forests 
and orchards, lawns and fields of grain, hills 
and rivers, villages and country-seats. The 
house was adorned with works of art, and in 
every room were pictures, the subjects of 
which were explained to the children until 
they became familiar with many exciting 
details of history and romance represented by 
them. All that competence, taste, and natural 
scenery and piety could contribute to make 
childhood as happy and as safe as it ever can 
be found in this life, appears to have surround- 
ed the early years of the future Mrs. Sher- 
wood. In addition to these circumstances, it 
may be mentioned that she was blessed with 
the most glowing health, and was remarked for 
her fine personal appearance. 

The child, who became the author of so 
many volumes of useful tales, had naturally a 
lively imagination, and this faculty must have 
been encouraged by the position of her first 
years as we have just described it. With 
beautiful and romantic scenes in her view 
every day, with music and painting to cheer 
her in the house, with parents who were fond 
of general literature, it is not to be wondered 
at that the young girl began very early to 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 9 

exercise her thoughts upon fanciful scenes. It 
may help our younger readers to understand 
the way in which the imagination is often 
excited in childhood, and to see how much 
danger there is in giving up the mind to such 
waking dreams, if they will read what Mrs. 
Sherwood says of herself at the time re- 
ferred to. 

" I was, from very early infancy, a creature 
who had a peculiar world of images about 
me; and the first exercise of my imagination 
operated upon one set of fancies. My mother 
used to sit much in her beautiful dressing-room, 
and there she often played sweetly on her 
guitar, and sung to it. Her voice sounded 
through the hall, which was lofty; and I loved 
to sit on the steps of the stairs and listen to 
her singing. She had possessed a canary 
bird when she first married, and it had died, 
and she had preserved it, and put it into a 
little coffin in an Indian cabinet in her dress- 
ing-room. My first idea of death was from 
this canary bird and this coffin; and as I had 
no decided idea of time, as regarded its length, 
I felt that this canary bird had lived, what 
appeared to me, ages before, when my mother 
had sung and played on her guitar before my 
birth ; and I had numerous fancies about those 



10 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

remote ages, fancies I could not define nor 
explain; but they possessed a spell over my 
mind that had power to keep me quiet many 
a half-hour as I sat by myself, dreamily pon- 
dering on their strange enchantment. I had 
also some very curious thoughts about an 
echo, which answered our invocations in various 
parts of the lovely grounds of Stanford. Echo 
I fancied to be a beautiful winged boy, and I 
longed to see him, though I knew it was in 
vain to attempt to pursue him to his haunts ; 
neither was echo the only unseen being who 
filled my imagination." 

By a proper use of imagination, young 
persons may assist good thoughts. When they 
behold any grand or beautiful objects in 
nature, they may be reminded of greater and 
more beautiful objects not to be seen by the 
mortal eye. But they should be careful 
against forming such ideas of spiritual and 
heavenly things as are not consistent with the 
teachings of the Scriptures. Mary Butt's 
fancies about the canary bird and the echo 
would only give her false opinions; and the 
more she thought of them as real, the harder 
it would be to give them up as things which 
had no existence. But then the sight of hills 
and mountains never failed, as she said, to 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 11 

make her think of God, and of future glory, 
and the world where the redeemed shall see 
their Saviour. This kind of imagination, within 
its proper bounds, helps the mind to under- 
stand, and the heart to feel the fact of the 
divine existence and the infinite character of 
the divine attributes. The stories which are 
read by or told to children, have a great effect 
on their imagination, and this shows the 
importance of those impressions which are so 
commonly considered as of no consequence, 
because made at so early an age. Mrs. Sher- 
wood, for example, long after she was a grand- 
mother, remembered books and their pictures 
which she had seen when she was four years 
old; and in one of her own books she has in- 
troduced a story which she heard at that age 
from the lips of her mother. One of the 
pictures in her father's house was a represent- 
ation of the martyrdom of Stephen, and 
one of the earliest feelings which she had of 
the character of the Lord Jesus as the friend 
of man, was obtained from the view which 
that picture gave of him as looking down from 
heaven, upon the martyr. As these associa- 
tions of childhood must be an interesting 
subject to the young, and ought to be well 
considered by those who have charge of their 



12 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

education, we will call Mrs. Sherwood to give 
some more incidents of the earliest period to 
which memory can reach. 

"I remember walking with my brother and 
nurse in a green lane, and feeding some little 
birds in a hedge, and coming one day, and 
finding the nest and birds gone, which was a 
great grief to me. Whilst at Pipe Grange, I 
recollect one evening being carried over some 
lovely commons to an old farm-house, where 
were many fragrant herbs and many sheep. 
The irregular walls were covered with ivy, 
and there was a garden, with yew trees cut in 
grotesque forms, in front of the house. I was 
not four years old at this time ; but such was 
the impression made on my mind then by the 
images of that evening that, years afterwards, 
being in a cabin of an East Indiaman, with no 
light and little air, being also under the influ- 
ence of fever occasioned by long protracted 
sickness, and my imagination being also assist- 
ed, no doubt, by the bleatings of the unhappy 
sheep on board, my sickly and inflamed fancy 
carried me back to those breezy commons and 
those unfettered days of infancy. I even 
imagined that I was there again, bounding 
with my brother over the little heaps of 
mould with which those commons are scattered, 



LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 13 

so extraordinary powerful were the images 
that that evening impressed on my memory. 
I once, about twelve years since, saw that old 
farm-house again, and found that I had, 
through all my wanderings, retained its per- 
fect picture in my mind, even to its irregular 
windows and shapeless chimneys. But who 
shall decide how soon these images, or any 
other images, may be fixed on the memory ? 
Certainly I believe that they are so fixed, 
often before there is a power imparted of 
arranging them in their places, or of recalling 
them in after life with any consistency." 

"Who shall say how soon the infant gaze 
goes forth to collect images, which are stored 
up never to be effaced? My opinion is, that 
a child with a lively imagination, who had 
been removed from any particular and remark- 
able scene at two years of age, and perhaps 
under that age, would, on returning to it in 
after-life, be sensible of a familiarity with the 
scenery, which one who had never before 
beheld it would not feel, — supposing the minds 
of each to be alike. With respect to myself, I 
have clear and accurate recollections before I 
was four years of age, — recollections of things 
which I can now describe ; but this I believe, 
that there has ever been an unusual vivacity 
2 



14 LIFE OF MES. SHERWOOD. 

in my imagination, the impressions made 
thereon being stronger than on nine-tenths of 
the minds of my fellow creatures." 

"In May, 1782, being then seven years old, 
my mother took me and my sister and brother 
to see her father at Coventry. This going to 
Coventry was the second journey which I 
remember to have taken ; and the impressions 
then made upon my mind never were effaced, 
but to this day are as fresh as ever. 

" Some years before, modern taste, or rather 
the bad taste of that day, had caused the 
great window of St. Michael's Church in 
Coventry to be repaired, and for this barbarous 
purpose certain panes of painted glass, of ex- 
ceedingly ancient date, had been thrown away 
as mere rubbish. My father, being in Co- 
ventry at the time, procured some pieces of 
this ancient glass, and brought it to Stanford, 
where he placed it in the Gothic window of his 
cottage on the glebe. This place had once been 
a mill, and, being situated on the declivity of 
a hill, the stream which had once turned the 
mill ran down the bank by its side. The 
woods, in which I had spent so many years 
of my infancy, flung their shades across the 
stream, making a little Paradise of the upper 
room of this old house, which my father called 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 15 

his study. He adorned it with busts, and 
filled the windows with the beautifully paint- 
ed panes he had obtained at Coventry. To 
this place my father often withdrew, to study 
with his pupils. Any visitors who might be 
at Stanford, and my mother and we children, 
used often to go thither to drink tea with 
him. 

My recollections, therefore, of this window 
must have been very early, yet I remember 
the figure of Lady Godiva on horseback, with 
other mounted figures in gaudy attire, and 
various quaint devices, in those deep colours 
which they say cannot now be imitated. There 
can be no doubt but my father often used 
these precious fragments whereon to build 
historical lessons; for his mode of instruction 
was never given by formal tasks and imposi- 
tions, but by his own humorous and eloquent 
comments on what was before him, and before 
the eyes of his pupils. My ideas of the feu- 
dal mode of life, of feudal habits, and of 
feudal manners have always been closely con- 
nected with these remnants of the ancient 
window of St. Michael's, Coventry. Hence it 
leaves no doubt in my mind, that the associa- 
tion was formed through some explanation 
given by my father on these windows; and 



16 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

probably these imperfect and broken remnants 
inspired my father with that most exquisite 
description ever written, of a window formed 
of stained glass, which exists in his novel of 
6 The Spanish Daughter. 7 This 1 think most 
probable, as he wrote the early part of this 
novel during the time in which he made the 
room at the mill-house his study." 



CHAPTER II. 

JUVENILE COMPOSITIONS — TRAINING AT HOME — REMOVAL TO KIDDER- 
MINSTER — " HOC AGE." 

As might be expected from what we have 
seen of the fanciful turn of the child's mind, 
and the encouragement given to that turn by 
the circumstances in which she was placed, 
Mary began very early to make stories of her 
own. This disposition and talent showed 
itself in her sixth year, and continued to be 
exercised all her life. Not having yet learned 
to write, she used to carry a slate to her 
mother, and get her to put down what had 
come into her mind. Her ideas were much 
enlarged by listening to the conversation of 
her parents; and in this way she learned 
more of foreign countries, and other times, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 17 

and great characters, than could have been 
obtained from reading only. Her home educa- 
tion was assisted at an early period of her 
course, by her father's taking a few private 
pupils into the family, on which account the 
conversation of the household was, more than 
before, occupied with useful subjects. 

The discipline of Mr. Butt's family, though 
of the most affectionate character, was strict. 

In England, and in those days, children 
were not allowed the familiarity and the 
indulgence which they are too much accus- 
tomed, especially in our country, to regard as 
their right. They were required to listen to 
conversation, without interrupting it. So far 
from lounging in the presence of their parents, 
they were only allowed, as an occasional 
favour, to sit on chairs when they were in the 
same apartment. Instead of the delicacies by 
which the health and energy of children are 
so often impaired, Mr. Butt's daughter had 
the plainest food, such as dry bread and cold 
milk. This diet is too much on the wrong 
extreme ; and still more unnatural and unwise 
was the means then taken, according to the 
prevailing custom, of making the persons of 
young girls straight and erect. This was 
done by placing a light iron collar around the 



18 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD, 

neck, attached to a backboard strapped over 
the shoulders, and kept on from morning till 
evening. Mary Butt wore this unpleasant 
harness from her sixth to her thirteenth year, 
at which age she had reached her full height, 
which was above the common standard of 
women. 

Mary Butt's natural propensity to the writ- 
ing of fiction was encouraged by her parents. 
When about ten years old her father shut up 
herself and her brother in his study, that each 
might write a story; and this was continued 
several days until their tasks were finished. 
By the time she was about ten years of age, 
we find her taking great delight in the narrat- 
ing of stories, whether of what she had heard 
and read, or of her own invention. In com- 
mon conversation she was so much at a loss 
for words that she was remarkably silent; but 
her language was fluent enough when her 
mind was excited by some foolish imagination 
of fairies, enchanters, the deities of Greece 
and Rome, and other fabulous beings. She 
employed her pen also on these unprofitable 
subjects; though her ambition in youth was 
rather to be a heroine of romance than a cele- 
brated authoress. 

As her childhood advanced she became a 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 19 

great reader. Besides the Latin and other 
books required in her regular studies, she 
eagerly used her father's library, and though 
old romances had too large a share of her 
reading, she did not neglect volumes of travels, 
and other works suitable to an inquisitive and 
ardent mind. 

In 1784, her father was appointed one of 
the chaplains of King George III. This 
office required him to be present at the royal 
palace in London every November, during 
which month it was his duty to preach and 
conduct religious services in the private chapel 
of the king. Two volumes of the sermons 
he preached at court were published in 1791. 
In the year 1788, Mr. Butt was appointed 
vicar of the town of Kidderminster, and it was 
determined to exchange the lovely parsonage 
and neighbourhood of the rural Stanford, for a 
residence in a place chiefly renowned for its wor- 
sted manufactures. In the history of religion, 
indeed, it is celebrated for another reason, 
Kidderminster being the parish where Richard 
Baxter was settled in the year 1640, and 
where he laboured with great success at inter- 
vals for twenty years. Baxter was driven 
from the pulpit of Kidderminster, because he 
could not conscientiously conform to the 



20 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

Church of England. His parishioners were 
of those called on this account Dissenters, who 
after a time obtained the right of worshipping 
according to their consciences. The influence 
of the godly and learned Baxter in that town 
did not cease with his removal from it, or 
with his life; and to its continuance in new 
generations may be attributed what Mrs. 
Sherwood said of the inhabitants in her 
father's time, "Certainly we found that the 
Dissenting portion of the society was the best 
educated." It was one of Baxter's cares to 
attend to the instruction of the young, and to 
encourage habits of reading among all classes, 
so that he sets down among the helps to his 
success in Kidderminster, that, as most of the 
men were weavers, they could stand in their 
looms, and set a book before them, to read 
while they worked. 

Mr. Butt paid great respect to the denomin- 
ations in the town that did not belong to his 
church, and his conduct must have served to 
promote the unbigoted and evangelical dispo- 
sition which afterwards showed itself in his 
daughter. He carried this good spirit so far 
that when a charity sermon was preached at 
any of the other churches, he was accustomed 
to attend in his gown as a clergyman, and 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 21 

stand at the door as the people went out, 
placing his daughter before him with one of 
the plates used in receiving the money for the 
benevolent object for which their contributions 
had been asked. 

Mary's education continued to be conducted 
by her parents themselves. Among other 
tasks required of her was a weekly composi- 
tion on some subject selected by her father. 
One morning, on going to him for her theme, 
the only answer he gave to her request was, 
" hoc age," which is the Latin for " do this." 
She did not understand his meaning, and when 
she asked for an explanation he would only 
say, "No, go and make it out." She went 
to her writing table, and wrote "hoc age" 
at the top of her paper; and as she was 
learning Latin, she was able to put the English 
under it, " do this ;" but there she stopped, not 
perceiving any sentiment or subject in those 
two words. The time for showing her essay 
came, but she had nothing ready but the 
heading. " Very well," said her father, smiling, 
" you will not forget ' hoc age' again, and let 
it ev^er be in your mind as an admonition each 
day of your life, to do that which is most 
necessary at the moment. I wished you, my 
child, to dwell long upon the words, and 



22 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

therefore I did not explain my meaning." 
Many years afterwards, she made "hoc age" 
the title of one of her smaller publications. 



CHAPTER ill. 



ABBEY SCHOOL AT READING — ROMAN CATHOLIC INFLUENCE. 

In the year 1790, Mr. Butt, having paid a 
visit to his friend the celebrated scholar Dr. 
Valpy, who was at the head of a classical school 
in the town of Reading, was so much pleased 
with a school for girls kept in the same place 
by a French gentleman and his wife, an 
English lady, that he determined to give his 
daughter the advantages of it for a year. Here 
she was a parlour boarder, and therefore not 
placed under the same restraint as the young- 
er pupils, and was left so much to take care 
of herself in every respect except the studies 
of the school, that she could only attribute it 
to the watchfulness of a particular providence 
that the system did not injure her character. 
Her own carefulness in matters about which 
young persons at boarding school are often 
without proper feelings and principles, caused 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 23 

the girls of a different disposition to avoid 
saying in her presence what they knew she 
would not countenance. This aversion to 
everything that had the sound or appearance 
of immorality she attributed rather to the 
delicate sense of purity in which she had 
been educated at home, than to the influence 
of religion. But she always rejoiced that after 
having been so trained to abhor every approach 
to impropriety of conduct, she had at least 
that protection against the evil examples 
among which she was thrown at school. On 
one occasion she was well nigh overcome by a 
temptation. Finding in the school-room a 
novel that was of a class she had heard her 
parents condemn in the strongest terms, she 
was induced to read a few pages. Suddenly 
she became aware of the impropriety of doing 
what she knew her parents would not allow, 
and she laid down the book, saying, as she did 
so, "God forgive me for my disobedience." 
She supposed she was not noticed or over- 
heard, but some of her schoolmates burst into 
rude laughter, and one of the teachers ridi- 
culed her by crying out that she was saying 
her prayers. This conduct, on their part, 
only showed more plainly how right and cour- 
ageous her own principles were, and in what 



14 LIFE OF MRS. EttBWOOB. 

dangerous associations her uncon- 

placed her, when they sent bet from 
: Fhe w : . .: ~ is -li jwh at 
another time. when, accorii _ I hei 
at home, she brought : hei : Ke U : 
the 8 Ul All around h cc out in 

imazen: i if the private reading 

the Bcrq mething absurd or un- 

rd ::. Ibis mD . » sh inge hen 

it is added, that the master of the school and 
some of the teache Bon 

and the incident m saggest k American 
parents one of the effects :bat may be ~ fe- 
ed to follow the education : nt chil- 
dren in :ir schools of Romanists. E 
Mary B n£t felt this influe: _ upon her, 
; th . yiel ting to the is of the pi 
she laid away her ft ble. The rules of the 

ol, indeed, required morni: _ 

read. I was done —nee of one 

of the male : Eton 

heard to whisper to the young lady reading 

form of Make baste, make 

haste.' 1 7 :her. in her table 

col : n no other sub; 

a plays and -.and anecdotes of 

theatre : : he male instructors — a 

lendant, too, of ti .ent theolog 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 25 

Benedict Pictet, of Geneva — was a rationalist ; 
and though the subject of his lessons should 
naturally have led him to teach the founda- 
tion of all true mental and moral science, 
there never was the least reference to revealed 
religion. While, therefore, the clergyman's 
daughter acquired many literary accomplish- 
ments during her year at Reading, it must be 
esteemed a happy circumstance in her history 
that at the end of that period she returned to 
her home at Kidderminster; for by this time 
she had to confess that whatever religious 
thoughts she had indulged in her childhood 
were almost wholly lost at the fashionable 
boarding-school. 

The summer after her return home she 
spent with her younger sister Lucy at their 
uncle's house at Trentham. There she began 
to resume the forms, at least, of religious 
habits, which had been broken off at school. 
She also undertook to write down what she 
could remember of the sermons she heard at 
church. 

But again the budding of a better life was 
to be put back. Either her parents were not 
aware of the true character "of the French 
school, or they were disposed to overlook the 
absence of moral influence in their high opinion 



26 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

of the literary merits of the course of instruc- 
tion; but they must seem to us to have taken 
a very inconsistent step when they determined 
to send Mary Martha for another term to the 
"Old Abbey" school at Reading, and their 
other daughter Lucy with her. 

The exposure of the sisters to irreligious 
gayety, and the loss of every domestic and 
sacred association of their home, could scarcely 
have been more dangerous than it now became. 
The horrors of the French Revolution were then 
approaching to their most fearful height. It 
was within a few weeks of the 21st of Janu- 
ary, 1793 — the day on which Louis XVL, the 
King of France, was beheaded. A large 
number of persons who fled from Paris had 
taken up their abode in Reading, and the 
Abbey was surrounded by these. Many of 
them w r ere infidels, or people of the most 
worldly description. The school itself had 
been much enlarged. Pictet was now the 
principal instructor, and his study was the 
favourite resort of the higher class of the 
young ladies. A grand ball was about to take 
place, and Mary and another, on account of 
their being the tallest girls, were chosen to be 
the leaders. A play was to be part of the 
entertainment, and one of the characters was 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 27 

assigned to her. Almost every night was 
devoted to a rehearsal of the dance or the 
play. All this took place, and, with dinners 
and suppers, occupied the entire week of 
Christmas. The excitement was followed by 
the appearance of measles among the scholars. 
Mary and Lucy were both attacked and 
recovered, but one of their schoolmates died. 
Even this did not put a stop to the worldly 
career of the clergyman's daughters, nor open 
their parents' eyes to the impropriety of per- 
mitting them to remain from their home. The 
school being broken up for a time, the mistress 
of the establishment offered to take Mary 
with her to spend a fortnight in London. Her 
parents consented, and the holiday was spent 
at dances, at the theatre, and in company. At 
the house of one of her friends a child had 
died ; it was the first corpse she had seen, and it 
made a solemn impression on her at the 
moment, but the same evening found her at a 
ball. When she returned to Reading, the 
number of French refugees was increased. 
Many were lodged around the Abbey, and 
some within the walls of the very school 
buildings. Amongst them were several gentle- 
men, married and single, who were always 
about the house during the day, and frequent- 



28 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

ly came to supper with the family in the 
evening. 

Nor was this all. A Roman Catholic priest, 
the Abbe Beauregard, laid a plot for the conver- 
sion of Mary and another of the parlour 
boarders to his religion. His manners were 
of the most agreeable and respectful kind. 
Under the pretext of teaching botany to the 
two unsuspecting girls, he led them to walk 
with him in the country, and artfully insinu- 
ated his arguments for the Romish faith. He 
at length gave to each of them a short prayer 
to the Virgin, written on a card, entreating 
them to use it. Mary's companion seemed 
disposed to yield to the suggestion, but upon 
endeavouring to persuade her to unite in the 
idolatrous act, Mary had the firmness to 
declare she never would consent. The char- 
acter of an abbess was selected for her part 
in a play that was to be performed by the 
pupils, which she resisted, more, however, 
from her distrust of her capacity to do it just- 
ice, than from conscientious scruples. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 29 



CHAPTER IV. 

ARLEY HALL — " THE TRADITIONS" RETURN TO STANFORD " MAR- 
GARITA" DEATH OF MR. BUTT — BRIDGENORTH — SABBATH-SCHOOL 

BATH. 

The two sisters returned once more to 
Kidderminster, and the improvement, as it 
was considered, which was acknowledged to 
have been made by them in refinement of 
manners, by mingling in such polished society, 
gave new cause to fear that Mary's vanity 
might be still more dangerously flattered. She 
was immediately invited to make a visit to 
Arley Hall, the seat of one of her father's 
former pupils, Mr. Annesley, who was now a 
peer by the name of Viscount Valentia. 
Among the guests was a German Princess, 
driven from her territories by the spread of 
the French Revolution. Here again Miss 
Butt was moving among persons of high rank 
and great accomplishments. From Arley she 
went to Lichfield, where her elegant hostess 
took every pains to have her well dressed, and 
introduced into company. There she attended 
numerous balls, and among them one given by 
a gentleman who boasted that he would 
assemble at it forty beauties. Every one 
3* 



30 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

went in a dress representing some fanciful 
character, and wore a mask, which was not to 
be removed from the face until a certain hour 
of the entertainment. Miss Butt was dressed 
as a shepherdess, and was honoured by being 
first asked by the gentleman who gave the 
ball to dance with him. This distinction, 
among so many beautiful ladies, greatly elated 
her vanity. 

We have given all these particulars, that 
the ultimate triumph which divine grace se- 
cured over a heart which the world and the 
flesh seemed destined to make their captive, 
may be more distinctly estimated, to the glory 
of the power which can make old things pass 
away, and all things become new. 

However injudicious it may appear, Miss 
Butt's father had impressed on her mind from 
an early period his expectation that she would 
one day accomplish something that would 
show the world she possessed uncommon 
talents. Her lively imagination must have 
been perceived by his fond and sagacious 
mind, and led him to anticipate a distinguished 
career for her genius. Growing up with this 
impression, she was scarcely seventeen before 
she had made her first attempt at authorship. 
The beginning of those productions of her 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 31 

pen which now fill many volumes as the 
Works of Mrs. Sherwood, was a tale entitled 
" The Tradition." She did not let any one 
know of her employment; but her father, 
happening to see the manuscript, showed it to 
others; and encouraged her to proceed in the 
composition. Just as it was completed, a 
friend of the family becoming bankrupt, it 
was determined to publish "The Tradition" 
for his benefit, and this being done by sub- 
scription, the result was sufficient to enable 
him to set up a school for his support. The 
book appeared in 1794, when Miss Butt was 
not yet nineteen. It is an evidence of the 
effect of the associations of the Abbey school 
upon her mind, while writing her first work, 
that in her mature age she said of it, "As to 
the religion, it is a sort of modification of 
Popery, and nothing more or less." 

About this time Mr. Butt resolved to put 
the Kidderminster church in charge of a 
curate, or assistant, and to return with his family 
to their favourite abode at Stanford which was 
still his parish. Here Miss Butt had the 
advantage of access to the libraries of their 
neighbours Lord Valentia and Sir Edward 
Winnington, as well as that of her father. 
She and her sister Lucy improved themselves 



32 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

in French composition by exchanging letters 
once a week in that language. They assumed 
imaginary characters and introduced stories 
and anecdotes into their correspondence. The 
only interruption of their cheerfulness at home 
arose from the more quiet and seclusive dis- 
position of their mother, who did not enter so 
cordially, as the young ladies thought she 
might well have done, into their lively, and 
perhaps romantic conversations. Miss Butt 
now began her second tale, "Margarita," most 
of the winter scenes which it describes being 
suggested by what she observed in the appear- 
ances of nature at Stanford. She attempted 
to depict the character of her father in the 
part of one of the personages of the story 
named the Canon Bernardo. Before it was 
completed, her beloved parent was taken from 
her, having been struck with palsy, of which 
he died in the end of September, 1795. 

This event gave a sudden interruption to 
the happiness and prosperity of the family. 
Miss Butt was not only strongly attached to 
her father by filial affection, but greatly 
admired his character and talents, and was 
united with him in his literary tastes and pur- 
suits. It now also became necessary to re- 
linquish the parsonage of Stanford with all 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 33 

its charms and happy associations, and most 
unfortunately for the comfort of the family, 
their new residence was in all respects the 
reverse of that which they had left. It was 
an old cheerless mansion in the town of Bridge- 
north. 

It might have been expected that these 
calamitous changes would be the occasion of 
leading such a sensible mind as that of Miss 
Butt to the serious consideration of her own 
spiritual condition. But great as her grief 
was, she does not appear to have resorted to 
the proper source either for consolation or 
improvement. Indeed, her religious convic- 
tions were so feeble at that time, that having 
met, during a visit to Bath, with a young 
gentleman of pleasing address, who was an 
open infidel, she was beginning to listen to 
his impious conversation without the strong 
disgust such sentiments had awakened in her 
mind when she heard them in the French 
circles at the Arley school. Here, again, it 
was a slight incident that providence made 
use of to put the clergyman's daughter on her 
guard. On going from Bath to Oxford, where 
her brother Marten was a scholar of Christ 
Church College, he presented her with a 
small copy of the new Testament. The 



34 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

simple fact of the gift, under the circumstan- 
ces, immediately aroused her to a sense of her 
peril, and seemed to undo at once all the 
mischief of the flattering and plausible unbe- 
liever. With bitter weeping she thought of 
that shame and horror her slightest encourage- 
ment of sceptical opinions would cause to her 
unsuspecting brother, and how her careless 
conduct in this respect did wrong to the mem- 
ory of her pious father. 

Another small incident may be set down 
among the plans by which the effectual power of 
divine truth was at length to reach the heart of 
this child of gayety. Life at Bridgenorth was 
dull and inactive, for the want of company and 
amusement. The Sabbath-days were particular- 
ly tedious to Mary and Lucy, and for the sake 
of having some occupation, they consented to 
take charge of the Sabbath-school of the 
parish church. This was in 1797 — being only 
fifteen years after Mr. Raikes had begun the 
system of Sabbath-schools for poor children in 
Gloucester. Each of the sisters had a class 
of thirty-five girls, and attended diligently 
to them on week days as well as when they 
were in school, or walked with them to church. 
They marked every absentee, and were sure 
to call at the houses of such during that week. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 35 

They practised the greatest economy, that 
they might have the more means to assist 
their indigent pupils, and not only did their 
own needlework, but were constantly sewing 
for the children. At first their new occupa- 
tion only amused them; they gradually be- 
came interested in it, and had occasion at a 
subsequent period to express their gratitude 
to God for making their work not only useful 
to others, but instrumental in the improvement 
of their own souls. 

In connection with other methods of doing 
good to her pupils, Miss Butt wrote a tale 
which she read to them by chapters as they 
were finished. The particular object of the 
story was to warn the elder girls of the school 
against the immoral influence produced by 
the presence of so many soldiers, as were 
then to be found in every town of England. 
Books for Sabbath-schools, or for the humbler 
classes on the subject of moral and religious 
duties, were then very rare, compared with 
what we are accustomed to in our day, and 
after "Susan Grey" had been read to the 
Bridgenorth school, and was published in 
1802, it became very popular, and has always 
been one of the most favourite of Mrs. Sher- 
wood's works with the public. 



36 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

From these times of active employment in 
christian duty may be dated those convictions 
of her need of a better religious state which 
at length resulted in a kind of piety to which 
she was yet a stranger. She had, indeed, 
already written in her private journal "0 
my God! others may love the world, but I 
will follow thee ! others may follow the plea- 
sures of this life, but I will be contented to 
take up my cross and follow thee !" But at 
this time, and long afterwards, she was making 
her calculation on obtaining the favour of God 
rather through her own good actions and 
character, than by faith in the way of right- 
eousness laid open in the gospel. The good 
conduct which must be the fruit of evangelical 
faith, she was in danger of making the substi- 
tute of faith. 

She persevered in her benevolent care for 
the poor. During a hard winter Lucy and 
she gave their mornings to making clothes 
for the indigent, and the afternoons to visits 
among them, carrying provisions bought with 
the savings of their own economy. Mary 
also wrote two tracts for distribution — "The 
Potatoes," and " The Baker's Dream." That 
her mind was becoming more drawn to the 
necessity of holy principles, and self-discipline, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 37 

as well as charitable deeds, is discovered by 
the rules she made for herself for a better use 
of the means of piety and the escape of temp- 
tation; such as these: "1. To rise as early as 
I can awake. 2. To spend my time in prayer 
till my mother is up. 3. To devote certain 
hours to my mother. 4. To read my Bible 
after breakfast. 5. Never to walk in the 
streets but when sent by my mother, or when 
any poor people require. 6. To go to church 
every Wednesday and Friday. 7. Never to 
indulge a worldly thought." Her conscience, 
more than her heart, being in these resolutions, 
they were not well kept, but they show how 
her attention was awakening, and in what 
direction she was looking. It may seem 
strange, but it is feared it is no uncommon 
fact in Christian families, that although Miss 
Butt was the daughter of a clergyman, and in 
the habit from her childhood of receiving 
religious instruction in church and at home — a 
teacher of a Sabbath-school — a writer of use- 
ful books and tracts — she confessed that at 
this time she was in such darkness in regard 
to Christian doctrines, that there was not one 
she could be said to comprehend. She knew 
what the outward duties of Christianity are; 
she felt her obligations to do good and to be 
4 



38 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

good; but she had not as yet either known 
or felt what was the natural condition of her 
own heart, or the ground and method of the 
change which it required, both as to its char- 
acter and its relation to God. According to 
her own perception of her case, "I had not 
yet gone one step beyond the desire of estab- 
lishing my own righteousness." But she was 
finding all efforts in this direction to be full of 
disappointment, increasing her discontent, and 
causing her to seek more earnestly for the true 
way. 

In 1801, Mrs. Butt determined to remove 
from Bridgenorth to Bath, and her daughters 
found that the separation from their Sabbath- 
school was the most painful part of the 
change. Upon going, about this time, to 
spend some months at Arley Hall, the seat of 
Lord Valentia, where their cousin was residing 
in his absence, and acting as the curate of the 
parish, the young ladies opened a Sabbath- 
school in the servants' room, the first that was 
established in that parish. Miss Mary also 
took into her entire charge at their home in 
Bath a little half-coloured girl of six years old, 
from the East Indies. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 39 



CHAPTER V. 

MARRIAGE REMOVAL TO INDIA — BATTLE AT SEA CALCUTTA*— 

DLNAPORE BIRTH OF SON — SCHOOL BERHAMPORE 

On the last day of June, 1803, Miss Butt 
was married to her cousin Henry Sherwood. 
They had met but seldom during their earlier 
years, as Mr. Sherwood had lived with an 
uncle in France, where he not only witnessed 
the scenes of the great Revolution in the times 
of Bonaparte, but had been in their perils. 
Upon his reaching his twenty-first year he 
entered the British army, and after remaining 
five years in the West Indies, had returned to 
England to obtain recruits for his regiment. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. Sher- 
wood was not only indifferent to religion, but 
when his wife wished to induce him to unite 
with her in the regular reading of the Scrip- 
tures, she found, to her great pain, that he did 
not fully believe in the truth of all parts of 
the holy volume. He refused to participate 
with her in this employment, until the birth 
of their first child, when in his thankfulness 
of joy he promised his wife that he would 
read the Bible to her every day. They began 
the daily perusal of it together when their 



40 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

child was five days old, and never omitted the 
practice during the forty-seven years of their 
married state. 

Mr. Sherwood was Paymaster of his regi- 
ment, and had the rank of captain. The regi- 
ment was removed to several different points 
while they remained in England, and Captain 
Sherwood, accompanied by his wife and infant, 
was obliged to attend them from place to 
place, sometimes by land, sometimes by sea. 
In the spring of 1805, the regiment was 
ordered to India. This involved Mrs. Sher- 
wood in a great trial; for her departure to 
such a distant country would require her to 
part not only from her mother and sister and 
native land, but from her babe. The voyage, 
and the climate of India, were considered as 
too great a risk for the life of the child to be 
exposed to, and the mother must surrender it 
to the care of others. The child was not yet 
a year old, and none but a mother can appre- 
ciate the severity of the sacrifice that Mrs. 
Sherwood felt herself bound to make. 

At the close of April the regiment embarked 
at Portsmouth in a fleet for India. The ship 
in which captain and Mrs. Sherwood sailed 
was " The Devonshire." The cabin allotted to 
her was so small, dark, and uncomfortable that 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 41 

it was misery to be in it, especially when sea- 
sickness was added to the troubles; but Mrs. 
Sherwood passed the voyage in reading and 
sewing, and in teaching a soldier's boy to read, 
wmo came to her every day after breakfast, 
for that purpose. Not the least pleasant of 
her daily employment was the hour of the 
evening when her husband came down and read 
the Bible to her. 

England and France were at that time at 
war with each other, and, of course, the fleet 
with which Capt. Sherwood was sailing was 
prepared for battle. After they had been 
about three months at sea, an opportunity 
occurred for exhibiting some of the terrors of 
a conflict on the ocean. Three French ships 
approached the British fleet, and two of them 
began to fire. The Devonshire was one of 
those nearest the enemy, and three shots 
passed through its rigging. For the sake of 
safety to them, and to have the vessel more 
clear for action, all the women were placed in 
the lower hold of the ship, which was con- 
siderably below water mark. There were six 
ladies of the families of the officers, nine 
soldiers' wives, two or three female servants, 
and four children. The place was almost 
dark; the ladder by which they descended 

4* 



42 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

into it was taken away to prevent their com- 
ing up; and so they were left for several 
hours, while the terrible noise of the cannon 
and the confusion of the battle were going on 
above them, and none knew what injury their 
husbands might be receiving, or what might 
be their own fate. The battle, however, 
passed off without much loss of life, or inter- 
ruption of the voyage, and on the 21st of 
August the continent of India was in sight. 
In a few days more Mrs. Sherwood found 
herself safe on land, and in the midst of the 
strange scenes of Asiatic life in the city of 
Madras. After remaining ten days on shore 
they again embarked in the Devonshire, for 
Bengal, and upon reaching the river Hoogley, 
Mrs. Sherwood immediately accompanied her 
husband in a boat fifty miles up the river, and 
arrived at the great city of Calcutta. They 
had apartments given to them in Fort William, 
the principal military station. Here they 
remained four weeks, when the regiment was 
ordered to Dinapore, a town on the Ganges, 
which they reached in several days' journey 
by boats. On the 25th of December, her son 
Henry was born in that town. Mrs. Sher- 
wood had been very much agitated by the 
fear that her child would be born in some 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 43 

part of India where there would be no clergy- 
man to baptize it. Although she never ceased 
to value this blessed birth-right privilege of 
the children of believers, she afterwards saw 
that, at this period of her Christian progress, 
her views of the necessity of baptism were 
superstitious rather than scriptural. As her 
mind received the gospel more intelligently, 
she abhorred the doctrine that baptism is 
necessary for the salvation of the soul, or that 
any outward rite is the means of regenerating 
the fallen nature. She had the gratification, 
however, of finding a clergyman on a visit to 
the Dinapore station, and by him her infant 
son was baptized. She showed how unserip- 
tural her views of these subjects were at this 
time, when some months after the child's 
baptism, its Hindoo nurse took him to some 
idolatrous service, and had a mark made upon 
his forehead as a sign of the false religion. 
Instead of treating this as of no consequence, 
Mrs. Sherwood was greatly terrified and could 
scarcely be persuaded that the infant would 
not be safe unless baptized a second time. 

Mrs. Sherwood, being an officer's wife, was 
at liberty to spend her time as she pleased. 
In the hot climate of India, most English la- 
dies consider themselves justified in passing 



44 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

their days even without taking part in the 
ordinary domestic duties to which they are 
accustomed at home. It is usual in India to 
employ so many servants, and the expense of 
having them is so light, that the temptations 
to indolence in a warm and luxurious country 
are very strong. But Mrs. Sherwood felt a 
religious obligation resting on her to be useful 
in the land of ignorance and degradation, 
where her lot was thrown. She saw that the 
work in which she could accomplish most good 
was the instruction of children, and so long as 
she remained in India, she continued, on the 
week-days as well as on the Lord's day, the 
care of the young which she had first under- 
taken in her Sabbath-school at home only as 
an amusement. No sooner was she settled in 
Dinapore than she began to collect the chil- 
dren of the English soldiers and others, and 
teach them at her own house. She soon had 
more than forty pupils of this description, 
refusing none who applied, not even when the 
children were coloured. But after a few 
months of this employment, she was obliged 
to break up her school and make another 
removal. The regiment was now to be taken 
to Berhampore, three hundred miles further 
up the Ganges. Here they arrived in July, 






LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 45 

1806, and the school was again opened with 
the same children of soldiers as in Dinapore, 
and a number of others from a different 
regiment. The only assistant Mrs. Sherwood 
had was a sergeant, who was very useful in 
keeping order. The school was open every 
day but the Sabbath from eight o'clock till 
twelve. Nothing in the new scenes of Indian 
life was more trying to Mrs. Sherwood's feel- 
ings than the comparative disregard of the 
Lord's day, even among her own countrymen. 
There would be a public service held in the 
morning, but as soon as it was over, business 
was transacted, and the day was usually closed 
with a dinner-party. The only way by which 
Mrs. Sherwood could obtain a quiet Sabbath 
in her own apartments was by her husband's 
absenting himself, so that there should be a 
reason for turning away those who came to see 
him on business. 

But it should be here recorded, that not- 
withstanding her zeal in teaching a daily 
school, solely for the purpose of doing good, 
and her anxiety to prevent a desecration of 
the Sabbath and secure its sacred as well as 
secular rest for herself, Mrs. Sherwood regard- 
ed herself as at this time only in a half-awak- 
ened state as it regarded true religion. She 



46 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

was still making more compliances with worldly 
customs than she could reconcile with her 
better feelings, and benevolent as her disposi- 
tion and intention were in undertaking the 
regimental school, she was doubtless sustained 
in the laborious work by a belief that in such 
self-denial there was something meritorious, 
even in the sight of God. It was only gradu- 
ally, and when experience had taught her 
that her conscience was not yet at peace, and 
that she had not found an undivided happiness 
in the love of God, that she was led by the 
Spirit of grace to the only true ground, 
whether of duty or of blessedness, " the right- 
eousness which is of God by faith." 



CHAPTER VI. 

BIKTH OF LUCY — DEATH OF HENRY — DOCTRINE OF DEPRAVITY — 
" INFANT PILGRIM." 

Her life in India, both as to its amusements 
and serious occupations, was one of great 
delight to Mrs. Sherwood. From her relation- 
ship to an officer of the army, she had access 
to the highest ranks of society, and was .some- 
times a guest even in the palaces of the Indian 
princes. In March, 1807, another daughter 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 47 

was added to her family, who received the 
name of Lucy Martha. This event contributed 
to increase her contentment in a foreign land, 
and to reconcile her to the separation from her 
eldest child left behind in England. But the 
happiness was not to continue long unbroken. 
Little Henry began to fail in his health; 
and after lingering for some months died in 
July. 

It was during her anxieties for her sick 
child (and probably in a degree owing to 
the unusually strong sense of the need of 
clear views of religious truth felt by a reflect- 
ing person under such circumstances) that Mrs. 
Sherwood attained the conviction of one of 
the cardinal doctrines of the Bible, which she 
had never yet understood or felt. Our read- 
ers will be surprised to hear, that the doctrine 
of which she confessed herself to be in total 
ignorance up to this time, was that of human 
depravity. Though taught in the articles of 
faith of the church in which she and her chil- 
dren had been baptized, she did not remember, 
until her great trials came upon her, that such 
an opinion was held, or knew what it meant. 
What is still stranger, as she herself admitted, 
she remained blind to this doctrine, though 
reading the Bible every day. It was the 



48 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

chaplain at Berhampore who discovered this 
deficiency in her religious knowledge, and con- 
vinced her from the Scriptures of the original 
hereditary guilt and depravity of human 
nature. He put into her hands Dr. Owen's 
great treatise " On Indwelling Sin," which she 
read with eagerness. Her apprehension of 
the facts as to the origin and extent of the 
sinfulness and guilt of the race had the effect 
upon her mind, which it always has when 
experimentally received — it gave relief to her 
anxieties, and direction to her inquiries. Not 
that any enlightened person finds relief from 
this source to the sense of responsibility, or is 
quieted in his fears on the ground that he 
cannot help what he inherits ; but as stated in 
Mrs. Sherwood's account of the effect of the 
truth in her own case — "I found immediate 
comfort in the doctrine; it was the comfort 
of one who, having long felt himself sick, 
finds the nature of his disease and its remedy 
laid open before him." Heretofore, her sense 
of sin had been superficial, and she had con- 
tinually wondered why her good works did 
not appease her conscience, and make her 
confirmed and settled in her religious experi- 
ence. But the light of the Scripture revela- 
tion plainly disclosed to her that nothing less 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 49 

than a new or regenerated nature would furnish 
the radical relief she needed, and that to 
furnish this was one of the essential objects 
of the mediation of Christ, and one of the 
effects of receiving him by faith as the sole 
meritorious ground of acceptance with God. 
It was not until Mrs. Sherwood saw the 
extent of the corruption of the heart, and the 
utter helplessness of man to remove or diminish 
it, that she began to appreciate the love of God 
in Christ Jesus. 

It was while residing at Berhampore that 
Mrs. Sherwood began to write her popular 
work, entitled " The Infant Pilgrim's Progress." 
She had finished some chapters of it, when 
she felt that she had left out a most important 
part of the description of even an infant's 
condition in the outset of life; so she began 
the book again for the purpose of introducing 
inbred or original sin as a companion of the 
young pilgrims in all their wanderings. 

About this time Captain Sherwood for the 
first time introduced the reading of prayers 
with his family every Lord's day, in addition 
to the daily reading of the Bible with his 
wife. His mind, as well as hers, was making 
advance in the right way. 
5 



50 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DINAPORE — HENRY MARTYN — DAVID CORRIE — CAWNPORE — " IN- 
DIAN ORPHANS" DEATH OF LUCY. 

In the month of September, 1807, Mr. 
Sherwood was obliged to make another re- 
moval still further up the Ganges, to Cawn- 
pore. On their way they stopped a few days 
at Dinapore, where they made their first ac- 
quaintance with an English clergyman, whose 
name is now familiarly known, and as gener- 
ally honoured throughout the Christian church. 
This was the Rev. Henry Martyn, who had 
left England as a military chaplain to India in 
August, 1805, and had taken up his residence 
at Dinapore in November of the following . 
year. Here he was laboriously employed in 
translating the Scriptures into the languages 
of Hindostan and Persia, in superintending 
native schools, and in promoting the knowledge 
of Christianity among all classes as he found 
opportunity. At the time of our history Mr. 
Martyn was not more than twenty-six years 
of age, and was suffering from the ill health 
from which he was not relieved until his 
death at Tocat, in Turkey, in the year 1812. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood were introduced 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 51 

to Mr. Martyn by a letter from Mr. Parson, 
the chaplain of Berhampore, to whose evangel- 
ical instruction they were so much indebted. 
The interest which is still felt in the character 
of Henry Martyn must make the details given 
in Mrs. Sherwood's journal of their interviews 
with him, one of the most engaging portions 
of her own biography. She thus described 
her first sight of him as he came to visit them 
in their boat : 

" He was dressed in white, and looked very 
pale, which, however, was nothing singular in 
India; his hair, a light brown, was raised 
from his forehead, which was a remarkably 
fine one. His features were not regular, but 
the expression was so luminous, so intellect- 
ual, so affectionate, so beaming with divine 
charity, that no one could have looked at his 
features, and thought of their shape or form; — 
the out-beaming of his soul would absorb the 
attention of every observer. There was a very 
decided air, too, of the gentleman about Mr. 
Martyn, and a perfection of manners which, 
from his extreme attention to all minute civil- 
ities, might seem almost inconsistent with the 
general bent of his thoughts to the most serious 
subjects. He was as remarkable for ease as 
for cheerfulness, and in these particulars this 



52 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

journal does not give a graphic account of this 
blessed child of God. I was much pleased at 
the first sight of Mr. Martyn. I had heard much 
of him from Mr. Parson ; but I had no anti- 
cipation of his hereafter becoming so disting- 
uished as he subsequently did. And if I anti- 
cipated it little, he, I am sure, anticipated it 
less ; for he was one of the humblest of men." 

The next day- they visited Mr. Martyn's 
residence, which they found destitute of almost 
every comfort, but that which was produced 
by his apartments being large and airy. Here 
they enjoyed his method of conducting family 
worship in the morning and evening. It began 
with the singing of a hymn, followed by the 
reading of Scripture with explanatory remarks, 
and closed with an extemporaneous prayer. 
The conversion of the people of India, and 
the general extension of the kingdom of Christ 
seemed to fill his thoughts, and overflowed in 
all his conversations, whether in the house, or 
in their evening walks. 

The observation of this devoted missionary's 
character, and the hearing of his instructive 
conversation must have helped to elevate his 
visiters' conception of practical Christianity, 
and assisted in its development, through 
divine grace, in their own hearts. They were, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 53 

however, separated for the present from this 
happy influence, by being obliged to pursue 
their voyage. 

On their way from Dinapore they formed 
their first acquaintance with another English 
missionary whose name is associated with the 
history of Martyn. This was the Rev. David 
Corrie, then stationed as chaplain at Chunar, 
afterwards archdeacon and then Bishop of the 
Church of England at Madras. Mr. Corrie 
spent three hours on the boat with our trav- 
ellers, and left the impression on them of a 
simple-hearted, holy Christian. They after- 
wards acknowledged it as a special advantage 
in the plan of the gracious providence that 
was guiding them, in the way most favourable 
to their spiritual benefit, that they were led to 
the society of such men as Martyn, Corrie, 
Parson, and other clergymen of their charac- 
ter, rather than to that of a less devout and 
devoted class of ministers. Their intimacy 
with such Christians brought to their view 
living illustrations of the reality and nature of 
the only grade of piety which conforms to the 
spirit of the doctrines and example of Christ, 
and exhibits their transforming power on the 
heart and conduct. "God in his infinite 
mercy, though we knew it not, was beginning 



54 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

to lead us out from worldly society into that 
of his chosen and most beloved children in 
India. He hitherto hedged our way with 
sharp thorns, but he was preparing the roses 
which, after a little while, were to render the 
few last years of our residence in the East as 
happy as human beings can be in the present 
state of existence." 

As soon as they reached Cawnpore, Mrs. 
Sherwood began her school with as much zeal 
as if, instead of being an officer's wife, she had 
gone out to India as a missionary. She gener- 
ally taught four classes ; one composed of the 
larger boys, another of the girls, and two 
classes of the younger children. She adopted 
an orphan child, named Annie, whose history 
can be read at large in " The Indian Orphans," 
in Mrs. Sherwood's works. This little girl 
had been so drugged with ardent spirits by 
those who had charge of her after her mother's 
death, that she never recovered her good 
health. This drugging of children with liquor 
or opium, to save their mothers or nurses the 
trouble of taking care of them when they are 
restless, is no unusual thing in India; nor, we 
fear, is it unknown in America. Hindoo 
mothers are w T ell known to be most unnatural 
in the treatment of their own children, espe- 



LIFE OF MBS. SHERWOOD. 55 

ci ally the females; "but women of Christian 
countries sometimes forget their humanity 
when they fall among such examples. This 
was shown in the case of another child whom 
Mrs. Sherwood adopted, by the name of 
Sarah. Her mother, who was an English 
soldier's wife, had died, and the care of the 
child had fallen upon another woman of the 
same class, in consequence of a promise she 
had made to the infant's mother on her death- 
bed. Mrs. Sherwood heard that this foster 
mother, having become tired of the burden, 
was trying to starve the child by degrees. 
Sending for her, she soon discovered the hor- 
rible truth. The helpless, motherless infant 
showed in its eager looks and emaciated frame, 
the effects of famine. The woman pretended 
it was the effect of illness, but Mrs. Sherwood 
took the child from her, and by prudent feed- 
ing it soon showed that its only disease was 
hunger. 

Not long after these events another sad 
bereavement befel the Sherwoods. Their 
daughter Lucy died of a few days' illness. 
While she lay in her fever, her mother had 
turned to Jeremiah's book of " Lamentations," 
only expecting to find some expressions to 
help her utter her anguish; but she found a 



56 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

better result upon reading there, the instruc- 
tive, as well as consoling words — "for the 
Lord will not cast off for ever; but though he 
cause grief, yet will he have compassion 
according to the multitude of his mercies : for 
he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the 
children of men." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



NOTICES OF HENRY MAETYN. 



In the spring of 1809, Mr. Martyn was 
appointed by the East India Company to be 
chaplain at Cawnpore; and this circumstance, 
so welcome to the family from the attachment 
they had formed for the devoted missionary, 
proved a great spiritual benefit to them. He 
travelled the distance from Dinapore — almost 
four hundred miles — in a palanquin, and for 
the last two days and nights, had no resting 
place on the way; and upon reaching Mr. 
Sherwood's door, he was so exhausted that he 
fainted. Even in the bungalow, or house, 
closely shut up from the sun, and with the 
punkah, or machine for fanning a room, in 
motion, the thermometer stood at 96°. But 



LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 57 

in a few clays, Mr. Martyn was sufficiently 
recovered to lie on a couch in the hall with 
his books around him. Amongst these were 
always to be found a Hebrew Bible and 
a Greek New Testament. Mrs. Sherwood has 
left an account of his employments during this 
residence with them, that our readers would 
not wish to have in any one's language but 
her own. Our extracts will show that beloved 
man as he appeared in the eyes of those who 
were most intimate with him, and give particu- 
lars that are not to be found in the memoirs 
of his life that have been published. 

" On the 30th of May, the Kev. Henry Mar- 
tyn arrived at our bungalow. The former chap- 
lain had proceeded to the presidency, and we 
were so highly favoured as to have Mr. Martyn 
appointed in his place. I am not aware whether 
we expected him, but certainly not at the 
time when he did appear. It was in the morn- 
ing, the desert winds blowing like fire without, 
when we suddenly heard the quick steps of 
many bearers. Mr. Sherwood ran out to the 
leeward of the house, and exclaimed, " Mr. 
Martyn." The next moment I saw him lead- 
ing in that excellent man, and saw our visitor 
a moment afterwards fall down in a fainting fit. 
He had travelled in a palanquin from Dinapore, 



58 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

and the first part of the way he moved only 
by night. But between Cawnpore and Alla- 
habad, being a hundred and thirty miles, there 
is no resting place, and he was compelled for 
two days and two nights to journey on in his 
palanquin, exposed to the raging heat of a fiery 
wind. He arrived, therefore, quite exhausted, 
and actually under the influence of fever. 

" In his fainting state, Mr. Martyn could not 
have retired to the sleeping-room which we 
caused to be prepared immediately for him, 
because we had no means of cooling any sleep- 
ing-room so thoroughly as we could the hall. 
We, therefore, had a couch set for him in the 
hall. There he was laid, and very ill he was 
for a day or two. On the 2nd of June the hot 
winds left us, and we had a close, suffocating 
calm. Mr. Martyn could not lift his head from 
the couch. 

" Mr. Martyn, like myself at this time, was 
often perplexed and dismayed at the workings 
of his own heart, yet, perhaps, not discerning 
a hundredth part of the depth of the depravity 
of his own nature, the character of which is 
summed up in Holy Writ in these two words 
— "utterly unclean." He felt this the more 
strongly, because he partook also of that new 
nature " which sinneth not." It was in the 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 59 

workings and actings of that nature that his 
character shone so pre-eminently as it did amid 
a dark and unbelieving society, such as was 
ours then at Cawnpore. 

64 In a very few days he had discerned the 
sweet qualities of the orphan Annie, and had 
so encouraged her to come about him that she 
drew her chair, and her table, and her green 
box to the vicinity of his couch. She showed 
him her verses, and consulted him about the 
adoption of more passages into the number of 
her favourites. Annie had a particular delight 
in all the pastoral views given in Scripture of 
our Saviour and of his church ; and when Mr. 
Martyn showed her this beautiful passage, 
' Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of 
thine heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood 
in the midst of Carmel,' (Micah vii. 14,) she 
was as pleased with this passage as if she had 
made some wonderful acquisition. 

" When Mr. Martyn lost the worst symptoms 
of his illness, he used to sing a great deal. He 
had an uncommonly fine voice and fine ear; he 
could sing many fine chaunts, and a vast 
variety of hymns and psalms. He would in- 
sist upon it that I should sing with him, and 
he taught me many tunes, all of which were 
afterwards brought into requisition; and when 



60 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

fatigued himself, he made me sit by his couch, 
and practise these hymns. He would listen to 
my singing, which was altogether very unscien- 
tific, for hours together, and he was constantly 
requiring me to go on even when I was tired. 
The tunes he taught me, no doubt, reminded 
him of England, and of scenes and friends no 
longer seen. The more simple the style of 
singing, the more it probably answered his 
purpose. 

"As soon as Mr. Martyn could in any way 
exert himself, he made acquaintance with some 
of the pious men of the regiment; (the same 
poor men whom I have mentioned before, who 
used to meet in ravines, in huts, in woods, and 
in every wild and secret place they could find, 
to read, and pray, and sing;) and he invited 
them to come to him in our house, Mr. Sher- 
wood making no objection. The time first 
fixed was an evening after parade, and in con- 
sequence they all appeared at the appointed 
hour, each carrying their mora, (a low seat,) 
and their books tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs. 
In this very unmilitary fashion they were all 
met in a body by some officers. It was with 
some difficulty that Mr. Sherwood could divert 
the storm of displeasure which had well nigh 
burst upon them on the occasion. Had they 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 61 

been all found intoxicated and fighting, they 
would have created less anger from those who 
loved not religion. 

" We did not join the party, but we heard them 
singing and praying, and the sound was very 
sweet. Mr. Martyn then promised them that 
when he had got a house he would set aside a 
room for them, where they might come every 
evening, adding he would meet them himself 
twice in the week. It may as well be remarked 
here as in another place, that as soon as every 
convenience for the assembly of these persons 
was provided, and when these assemblies were 
sanctioned by our ever kind Colonel Mawby, 
and all difficulties, in short, overcome, many 
who had been the most zealous under perse- 
cution fell quite away, and never returned. 
How can we account for these things ? Many, 
however, remained steadfast under evil report 
as well as good report, and died as they had 
lived in simple and pure faith. 

" I must not omit in this place another anec- 
dote of Mr. Martyn, which amused us much at 
the time after we had recovered the alarm at- 
tending it. The salary of a chaplain is large, 
and Mr. Martyn had not drawn his for so long 
a time, that the sum amounted perhaps to some 
hundreds. He was to receive it from the col- 
6 



62 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

lector at Cawnpore. Accordingly, he one morn- 
ing sent a note for the amount, confiding the 
note to the care of a common cooley, a porter 
of low caste, generally a very poor man. This 
man went otf, unknown to Mr. Sherwood and 
myself, early in the morning. The day passed, 
the evening came, and no cooley arrived. At 
length Mr. Martyn said in a quiet voice to us, 
" The cooley does not come with my money. 
I was thinking this morning how rich I should 
be ; and, now, I should not wonder in the least 
if he has run off, and taken my treasure with 
him." "What!" we exclaimed, "surely you 
have not sent a common cooley for your pay?" 
"I have," he replied. Of course we could not 
expect that it would ever arrive safe; for it 
would be paid in silver, and delivered to the 
man in cotton bags. Soon afterwards, how- 
ever, it did arrive, a circumstance at which we 
all greatly marvelled. Immediately after this 
Mr. Martyn went out, and, being persuaded by 
some black man, he bought one of the most 
undesirable houses, to all appearance, which he 
could have chosen. This house afterwards 
proved to be, in many respects, singularly con- 
venient, as we shall show by-and-by. On the 
29 th of May, Mr. Martyn left us to go to his 
own house: and after he was gone I fell into a 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 63 

state of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with my- 
self; for I was then experiencing a deeply 
strong sense of my own depravity, not yet 
having reached to such Bible knowledge as 
might lead me to the conviction that this de- 
pravity, which I bewailed so incessantly, must 
remain in antagonism with the work of the 
Spirit, until the carnal nature shall be put off 
in the moment of death. Mr. Martyns house 
was a bungalow situate between the Sepoy 
Parade and the Artilleiy Barracks, but behind 
that range of principal bungalows which face 
the Parade. The approach to the dwelling 
was called the Compound, along an avenue 
of palm trees and aloes. A more stiff, funereal 
avenue can hardly be imagined. At the end 
of this avenue were two bungalows, connected 
by a long passage. These bungalows were 
low, and the rooms small. The garden was 
prettily laid out with flowering shrubs and 
tall trees; in the centre was a wide space, 
which at some seasons was green, and a cher- 
buter, or raised platform of chunam, of great 
extent, was placed in the middle of this space. 
A vast number and variety of huts and sheds 
formed one boundary of the Compound; these 
were concealed by the shrubs. But who would 
venture to give any account of the hetero- 



64 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

geneous population which occupied these build- 
ings ? For, besides the usual complement of 
servants found in and about the houses of per- 
sons of a certain rank in India, we must add 
to Mr. Martyn's household a multitude of Pun- 
dits, Moonshees, schoolmasters, and poor nom- 
inal Christians, who hung about him because 
there was no other to give them a handful of 
rice for their daily maintenance; and most 
strange was the murmur which proceeded at 
times from this ill-assorted and discordant 
multitude. Mr. Martyn occupied the largest 
of the two bungalows. He had given up the 
least to the wife of Sabat, that wild man of 
the desert, whose extraordinary history has 
made so much noise in the Christian world. 
Mr. Martyn had come up dawk (post) from 
Dinapore; Sabat with all the household and 
goods had arrived in boats. 

"It was a burning evening in June, when 
after sun-set I accompanied Mr. Sherwood to 
Mr. Martyn's bungalow, and saw for the first 
time its avenue of palms and aloes. We were 
conducted to the cherbuter, where the company 
was already assembled, among which there 
was no lady but myself. This cherbuter was 
many feet square, and chairs were set for the 
guests; and a more heterogeneous assembly 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 65 

surely had not often met, and seldom, I believe, 
were more languages in requisition in so small 
a party. Besides Mr. Martyn and ourselves, 
there was no one present who could speak 
English. But let me introduce each individ- 
ual separately; and first, Sabat. The only 
languages which he was able to speak were 
Persian, Arabic, and a very little bad Hin- 
dostanee ; but what was wanting in the words 
of this man was more than made up by the 
loudness with which he uttered them, for he 
had a voice like rolling thunder. 

" The second of Mr. Martyn's guests, whom I 
must introduce as being not a whit behind 
Sabat in his own opinion of himself, was the 
Padre Julius Caesar, an Italian monk of the 
order of the Jesuits, a worthy disciple of Igna- 
tius Loyola. He spoke French fluently, but his 
native language was Italian. His conversation 
with Mr. Martyn was carried on partly in Lat- 
in and partly in Italian. A third guest was a 
learned native of India, in his full and hand- 
some Hindostanee costume; and a fourth, a 
little, thin, copper-coloured, half-caste Bengalee 
gentleman, in white nankeen, who spoke only 
Bengalee. Mr. Sherwood made a fifth, in his 
scarlet and gold uniform ; myself, the only lady, 
was the sixth ; and add our host, Mr. Martyn, 



66 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

in his clerical black silk coat, and there is our 
party. Most assuredly I never listened to 
such a confusion of tongues before or since. 
Such a noisy, perplexing Babel can scarcely 
be imagined. Every one who had acquired 
his views of politeness in Eastern society was 
shouting at the top of his voice, as if he had 
lost his fellow in a wood; and no less than 
seven languages were in constant request, viz., 
English, French, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Hin- 
dostanee, Bengalee, and Latin. 

" From the time Mr. Martyn left our house 
he was in the constant habit of supping with 
us two or three times a week, and he used to 
come on horseback, with the sais running by 
his side. He sat his horse as if he were not 
quite aware that he was on horseback, and he 
generally wore his coat as if it were falling 
from his shoulders. When he dismounted, 
his favourite place was in the verandah, with 
a book, till we came in from our airing. And 
when we returned, many a sweet and long dis- 
course we had, whilst waiting for our dinner 
or supper. Mr. Martyn often looked up to 
the starry heavens, and spoke of those glorious 
worlds of which we know so little now, but of 
which we hope to know so much hereafter." 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 67 

CHAPTER IX. 

FURTHER NOTICES OP HENRY MARTYN — VOYAGE TO CALCUTTA. 

In the month of September, 1809, Mr. 
Martyn baptized Lucy, the infant of Mrs. 
Sherwood, born the preceding month. The 
service was not performed, as it too often 
is, as if an empty ceremony ; but so solemnly 
that the mother never forgot it. It was then 
just a year since her other child Lucy had 
been taken from her by death; and fearing 
that it was impossible to preserve her chil- 
dren's health, or to hope for their living long 
in the climate of India, Mrs. Sherwood had 
resolved to take them to her friends in 
England, even though she should herself re- 
turn to her husband. The last week of their 
stay in Cawnpore they spent at Mr. Martyn's 
house, going every night to sleep in the boat 
in which they were to sail to Calcutta. Here 
we must copy Mrs. Sherwood's own account 
of the missionary in his home and daily occu- 
pations. 

" I still remember the time we spent at Mr. 
Martyn's bungalow with deep interest. In 
the mornings we all used to set out together, 
children and servants, to go up from the river 



68 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

to the house, whilst the dew yet lay upon the 
grass; for it was the beginning of the cold 
season, and the many aromatic flowers of that 
southern climate shed their perfume in the 
air. Having arrived at the bungalow, the 
children and their servants went to the apart- 
ments appointed them, and I went into the 
hall to breakfast. There were always one or 
more strangers (gentlemen) present. We sang 
a hymn, and Mr. Martyn read and prayed be- 
fore breakfast, and we often sat long at break- 
fast. The persons who visited Mr. Martyn, 
with few exceptions, were religious persons, 
and the conversation was generally upon re- 
ligious subjects, the conversion of the heathen 
being constantly the topic of discourse. Many 
letters were at this time passing between the 
different religious leaders (if such an expres- 
sion may be permitted me) throughout all 
India: the Rev. David Brown, of Calcutta, 
being, as it were, set in the centre of the bat- 
tle, whilst others occupied the front, and were 
as pioneers, breaking up the new ground. Mr. 
Brown again and again suggested new plans 
of work, and there were then not a few who 
were eager to execute them, full of confidence 
that wonders were to be wrought, and the 
whole earth converted, according to the words 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 69 

of Mi\ Martyn's favourite hymn, which is a 
paraphrase of the 72nd Psalm by Dr. Watts : — 

1 Jesus snail reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run ; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

1 The saints shall flourish in his days, 
Dress'd in the robes of joy and praise ; 
Peace, like a river from his throne, 
Shall flow to nations yet unknown.' 

"As I said before, little was spoken of at Mr. 
Martyn's table but of various plans for ad- 
vancing the triumphs of Christianity. Among 
the plans adopted, Mr. Martyn had, first at 
Dinapore and then at Cawnpore, established 
one or two schools for children of the natives 
of the lower caste. His plan was to hire a 
native schoolmaster, generally a Mussulmaun, 
to appoint him a place, and to pay him an anna 
a head for each boy whom he could induce to 
attend school. These boys the master was to 
teach to write and read. It was Mr. Martyn's 
great aim, and, indeed, the sole end of his ex- 
ertions, to get Christian books into the school. 
As no mention was ever made of proselytism, 
there was never any difficulty found in intro- 
ducing even portions of the Scripture itself, 



70 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

more especially portions of the Old Testament, 
to the attention of the children. The books 
of Moses are always very acceptable to a 
Mussulmaun, and Genesis is particularly inter- 
esting to the Hindoos. Mr. Martyn's first 
school at Cawnpore was located in a long shed, 
which was on the side of the cavalry lines. 
It was the first school of the kind I ever saw. 
The master sat at one end, like a tailor, on 
the dusty floor; and along under the shed sat 
the scholars, a pack of little urchins, with no 
other clothes on, than a skull cap and a piece 
of cloth round the loins. These little ones 
squatted, like their master, in the sand. They 
had wooden imitations of slates in their hands, 
on which having first written their lessons 
with chalk, they recited them, being sure to 
raise their voices on the approach of any Eur- 
opean or native of note. Now Cawnpore is 
about one of the most dusty places in the world. 
The Sepoy lines are the most dusty part of 
Cawnpore ; and as the little urchins are always 
well greased, either with cocoa-nut oil or, in 
failure thereof, with rancid mustard oil, when- 
ever there was the slightest breath of air they 
always looked as if they had been powdered all 
over with brown powder. But what did this 
signify ? they would have been equally dusty 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 71 

in their own huts. In these schools they were 
in the way of getting a few ideas ; at all events, 
they often got so far as to be able to copy a 
verse on their wooden slates. Afterwards 
they committed to memory what they had 
written. Who that has ever heard it can for- 
get the sounds of the various notes with which 
these little people intonated their " Aleph Zub- 
bur ah — Zair a — Paiche oh," as they waved 
backwards and forwards in their recitations? 
Or who can forget the vacant self-importance 
of the schoolmaster, who was generally a long- 
bearded, dry old man, who had no other means 
of proving his superiority over the scholars 
but making more noise than even they could 
do? Such a scene, indeed, could not be for- 
gotten; but would it not require great faith 
to expect anything green to spring from a soil 
so dry ? But this faith was not wanting to the 
Christians then in India. 

" Bibles at that period were most scarce and 
valuable in India ; Annie and Sally were there- 
fore much pleased when Mr. Martyn gave 
each of them a copy. His kindness to these 
little ones was always remarkable ; he was 
never more at his ease than when they were 
hanging about him. On Sabbath, 22nd Octo- 
ber, we received the Lord's Supper from Mr. 



72 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

Martyn; about fourteen of the devout men of 
the 53d being present, and Francis, the eldest 
of my scholars in the regiment." 

Leaving Cawnpore, the family proceeded on 
their voyage down the Ganges, stopping at 
some of the principal towns that lie on its 
banks, though not often leaving their boat. 
At Chunar, the benevolent and excellent Mr. 
Corrie visited them. Mrs. Sherwood had the 
highest esteem for the personal character of 
this clergyman, and pronounced him, in his 
peculiar path of missionary employment^ which 
was different from that of Mr. Martyn's, as 
probably the most useful man of the Church 
of England that had then ever laboured in 
India. It was with Mr. Corrie and his sister 
that Mrs. Sherwood designed leaving the two 
orphan children, Lucy and Sally, during her 
expected absence in England ; and they cheer- 
fully undertook the responsible charge. 

On the 28th of November the boat reached 
Calcutta. They found four ships on the point 
of sailing for England, in one of which Mrs. 
Sherwood with her infant and nurse would 
have taken passage, when suddenly the nurse 
refused to accompany her. This unexpected 
interruption of her plan led Mrs. Sherwood to 
reflect more seriously than she had heretofore 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 73 

done, whether it was her duty to leave India 
and separate herself so long from her husband, 
especially as in doing so she would be acting 
in opposition to his wishes. They agreed to 
consult two of the best physicians of Cal- 
cutta as to the necessity of taking their child 
to a colder climate. Both of the physicians 
declared that she might be safely retained in 
India for some years at least, and Mrs. Sher- 
wood joyfully assented to this decision as an 
indication of her duty. She felt the incident, 
too, as a providential reproof for allowing her 
tenderness as a mother to go beyond her 
obligations as a wife, and in reviewing the 
circumstance long afterwards, she used these 
strong expressions : — 

"0 my God! my Father! and my Friend! 
How can I sufficiently thank thee, Lord! 
for thy goodness to me in this instance ; for 
thine infinite kindness in thus removing the 
film from my eyes, and showing me the way 
I should go, ere yet I had taken that step 
which was so decidedly against my duty! 
Oh ! who can tell what might have been the 
consequences had I been permitted to go, fol- 
lowing my own devices, until I had made full 
shipwreck of all our domestic happiness ! Oh ! 
let me warn all wives to consider what I have 
here said." 



74 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 



CHAPTEE X. 

EEV. MR. THOMASON REV. DAVID BROWN ORPHAN ASYLUMS 

RETURN TO CAWNPORE — FAMILY AT MIRZAPORE. 

The idea of leaving India being thus aban- 
doned, Mrs. Sherwood immediately prepared to 
return with her husband to his post at Cawn- 
pore. The few days they waited at Calcutta 
they spent at the residence of the Rev. 
Thomas T. Thomason, who had come from 
England in the capacity of a chaplain of the East 
India Company, in the year 1808. She was 
much gratified with the attention which Mr. 
Thomason gave to the instruction of the chil- 
dren, one or other of whose parents was a Euro- 
pean. Once every week he collected these in 
his church and examined them on religious 
subjects. On the occasion on which Mrs. 
Sherwood was present, he was examining this 
young audience on the sermon of the previous 
Sabbath. He was preaching a series of dis- 
courses on obedience to parents, and, according 
to his custom, had provided the children with 
the principal heads of the last sermon in the 
form of questions and answers, printed for 
their use. At this time, too, they saw for 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 75 

the first and only time another well known 
English minister — the Rev. David Brown, in 
whose church now stands the honourable in- 
scription to his memory : — 

"To the poor the gospel was preached 
in this church by the Rev. David Brown, 
during a period of twenty-five years." 

It was to the wife of Mr. Thomason, and 
during this unexpected visit, that Mrs. Sher- 
wood opened her heart as to the condition of 
the orphan children of poor Europeans. This 
conference interested both her and Mr. Thom- 
ason so deeply in the behalf of the neglected 
children, that what seemed so untoward an 
event and loss of time, as this long voyage 
down the Ganges and back, proved to be the 
origin of what was afterwards so liberally 
done for establishing an institution for this 
description of orphans. For it was in conse- 
quence of this disappointment that Annie, one 
of the orphans in Mrs. Sherwood's care, was 
afterwards taken to Calcutta by Miss Corrie. 
The child became known to Lady Loudon, a 
person of high rank and influence, who was 
thus led to inquire into the state of the 
motherless white girls living in the military 
barracks. The information she gained from 
Mrs. Thomason, Mrs. Sherwood and others, 



76 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

induced her to establish an asylum in Calcutta 
fur white orphan girls, in addition to two 
establishments already in existence, for other 
classes of orphans. 

On the 18th of December, they were on 
their river voyage once more. In two weeks 
they met a boat in which, to their great sur- 
prise, they found the lady who had taken 
charge of the orphan Sally. The lady was on 
her way to Calcutta in very ill health ; and to 
the joy both of the little girl and Mrs. Sher- 
wood, it was determined that she should at 
once return to her care. Seven weeks later 
they reached Mr. Corrie's house at Chunar, 
where they expected to take up their other 
adopted orphan — Annie; but Mr. Corrie and 
his sister had become so much attached to the 
child, that Mrs. Sherwood consented to leave 
her with her. 

It may entertain and instruct our youthful 
readers to have some information of the man- 
ner in which children of a different class from 
those of poor orphans, are treated in India. 
We will therefore introduce here the descrip- 
tion which Mrs. Sherwood gave of the life of 
the children of a wealthy Indian family at 
Mirzapore, at whose house they halted soon 
after leaving Chunar. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERAVOOD. 77 

" Though we slept in our boat, I could not 
leave the children there, and, therefore, we 
brought them up, and located little Miss Lucy 
and her attendants in the nursery of our 
friend, who had, besides two or three children 
at school in England, one daughter, Miss 
Louisa, whom we had seen before, and three 
very little ones. These children had the whole 
of a wing of the large house devoted to them- 
selves and their attendants ; for each child had 
two or more servants to itself, not counting 
the washerman, sweepers, bullock drivers, 
silver-stick bearers, cooks, &c, &c, which that 
portion of the house needed. Over all these 
was a large, tall, consequential, superbly 
dressed, high salaried, white woman, probably 
some sergeant's widow, who sat in state, and 
gave her orders. Under this person was an 
Ayah, or head nurse, a black woman, who 
had lived long with the lady of the mansion, 
and who no doubt felt the yoke of the white 
woman anything but easy. The civilian's 
lady herself, who was a very gentle, timid 
person, seemed to be in some awe of the mis- 
tress paramount of her nursery. 1 can fancy 
I see this tyrant now, in her smart head-tire, 
seated in her elbow chair, issuing her com- 
mands in Anglo-Hindostanee, and scarcely 



78 LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 

condescending to bow to her lady's visitors. 
But there were three babies, as near to each 
other in age as possible, and this was to me a 
sight of the deepest interest, for the children 
looked well, and the little one was so fat that 
they had put rows of pearls about her little 
neck to prevent the creases occasioned by the 
plumpness from galling. 

" I must now proceed to some description 
of Miss Louisa, the eldest daughter then in 
India of our friends, who, at that time, might 
have been about six or seven. She was tall 
of her age, very brown, and very pale. She 
had been entirely reared in India, and was 
accustomed, from her earliest infancy, to be 
attended by a multitude of servants, whom 
she despised thoroughly as being black, 
although, no doubt, she preferred their soci- 
ety to her own country people, as they 
ministered, with much flattery and servil- 
ity, to her wants. Wherever she had moved 
during these first years of her life, she had 
been followed by her Ayah, and probably by 
one or two bearers, and she was perfectly 
aware that if she got into any mischief they 
would be blamed, and not herself. In the 
meantime, except in the article of food, every 
desire, and every caprice, and every want had 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 79 

been indulged to satiety. No one who has 
not seen it could imagine the profusion of toys 
which are scattered about an Indian house 
wherever the Babalogue (children people) are 
permitted to range. There may be seen — fine 
polished and painted toys from Benares, in 
which all the household utensils of the coun- 
try, the fruits, and even the animals, are 
represented, the last most ludicrously incor- 
rect. Toys in painted clay from Morshedabad 
and Calcutta, representing figures of gods and 
godesses, with horses, camels, elephants, pea- 
cocks, and parrots, and now and then a Tope 
Walla, or hat wearer, as they call the English, 
in full regimentals and cocked hat, seated on 
an ill-formed, clumsy thing, meant for a horse. 
Then add to these, English, French, and Dutch 
toys, which generally lie pell-mell in every 
corner where the listless, toy-satiated child 
may have thrown or kicked them. 

" The quantity of inner and outer garments 
worn by a little girl in England would render 
it extremely fatiguing to change the dress so 
often as our little ladies are required to do in 
India. Miss Louisa's attire consisted of a 
single garment, a frock body without sleeves, 
attached to a pair of trousers, with rather a 
short, full skirt gathered into the body with 



80 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

the trousers, so as to form one whole, the 
whole being ruffled with the finest jindelly, 
a cloth which is not unlike cambric, every 
ruffle being plaited in the most delicate man- 
ner. These ruffles are doubled and trebled on 
the top of the arm, forming there a substitute 
for a sleeve, and the same is done around the 
ankle, answering the purpose almost of a 
stocking, or at least concealing its absence. 
Fine coloured kid shoes ought to have complet- 
ed this attire, but it most often happened that 
these were kicked away among the rejected 
toys. 

" How many times in the day the dress of 
Miss Louisa was renewed, who shall say ? It, 
however, depended much upon the accidents 
which might happen to it, but four times was 
the usual arrangement, which was once before 
breakfast, once after, once again before tiffin, 
[lunch,] and once again for the evening air- 
ing. The child, being now nearly seven years 
old, was permitted to move about the house 
independently of her Ayah ; thus, she Avas 
sometimes in the hall, sometimes in the ver- 
andah, sometimes in one room, sometimes in 
another. In an Indian house in the hot season 
no inner door is ever shut, and curtains only 
are hung in the doorways, so that this little 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 81 

wild one was in and out and everywhere just 
as it hit her fancy. She had never been 
taught even to know her letters ; and she had 
never been kept to any task ; she was a com- 
plete slave of idleness, restlessness, and ennui. 
6 It is time for Louisa to go to England/ was 
quietly remarked by the parents, and no one 
present controverted the point. As to little 
Sally, she seemed perfectly terrified by this 
child, and kept close by me. The lady of the 
house, it should be told, suffered as much as 
any European who yet lived, could do, from 
the influence of the climate. She had not 
bodily strength to control either children or 
servants ; she seemed to have lost all motive 
of action, all power of exertion. She had few 
books, and scarcely ever heard any news of 
her own people, of whom she saw scarce one in 
a year, and apparently she took little interest 
in the natives. Hers was, indeed, but a com- 
mon picture, which might represent hundreds 
of her country people in the same situation. 
There is no solitude like the solitude of a civi- 
lian's lady in a retired situation in India." 



82 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 



CHAPTER XI. 

" LITTLE HENRY AND HIS BEARER" HENRY MARTYN's CONGREGA- 
TIONS — ABDOOL MUSSEEH — " INDIAN PILGRIM." 

It was not till three weeks after leaving 
Mirzapore that our travellers at length found 
themselves at their proper home in Cawnpore. 
Among the first to welcome them was Henry 
Martyn. He was then looking very ill, and 
often complained of what he called a fire burn- 
ing in his heart. 

Mrs. Sherwood having procured a Dhaye, 
or native nurse, for her infant child, felt great 
sympathy for the nurse's own infant which 
the mother had to give to another woman to 
take care of. It was while her mind was 
wrought by such incidents to reflect on the 
condition of the poor people of the country, 
that she began to write her celebrated story, 
entitled "Little Henry and his Bearer." 

She was stimulated in attempting something 
for the improvement of the various classes 
around her, by witnessing the self-denying 
exertions in which Mr. Martyn was so con- 
stantly employed. From the earliest period 
of his arrival in Cawnpore, he had been 
accustomed to collect all the pious British 



LIFE OF MIIS. SHERWOOD. 83 

soldiers, and conduct worship with them. He 
had a school of native boys taught under his 
direction. But his hardest and least en- 
couraging labour was that which he bestowed 
on certain classes of Mahommedan and Hin- 
doo persons, who, under pretence of being 
greatly devoted to their own false religions, 
were the vilest and most vicious characters in 
the country. By offering a small piece of 
money to such of these as would come to 
the enclosure around his house on Sabbath 
evenings, he collected crowds of the most 
miserable and frightful objects. Most of them 
were of that class of pretended saints, who in 
order to deceive the people with an idea of 
their holiness, keep themselves in the most 
filthy state, and distort themselves so as to 
disgust or frighten the beholders. It is such 
as these who have so often been described in 
books on India as allowing their hair and nails 
to grow without cutting or cleaning; standing 
in one position until their limbs become 
shrivelled ; holding their hands clenched until 
the finger nails grew through the palms. As 
many as five hundred of these wretched beings 
would be assembled at one time in Mr. Mar- 
tyn's garden, and in the midst of them he 
would seat himself, and endeavour to give 



84 LIFE OF MRS. HHERWOOD. 

them instruction out of the Bible. He per- 
severed in his efforts to break up their super- 
stitions and vices, notwithstanding he was 
often interrupted with their hideous noises, 
blasphemies and threatenings. It was at one 
of these singular meetings that Mr. Martyn's 
discourse was overheard by some young Mus- 
sulmauns who were drinking and smoking in 
an adjoining garden. Out of curiosity they 
came into the enclosure where they could hear 
what was said, and it was one of these who, 
having his mind now first awakened to inquire 
into the truth of Christianity, became an 
humble disciple and a zealous missionary of 
Christ to his countrymen. His family name 
was Sheikh Saleh; but upon being baptized, 
he took the name by which he is best known, 
of Abdool Musseeh, meaning u servant of 
Christ." Mrs. Sherwood says : — 

"We often went on the Sabbath evenings, 
to hear the addresses of Mr. Martyn to the 
assembly of mendicants, and we generally 
stood behind him on the cherbuter. On these 
occasions we had to make our way through a 
dense crowd, with a temperature often rising 
above 92, whilst the sun poured its burning 
rays upon us through a lurid haze of dust. 
Frightful were the objects which usually met 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 85 

our eyes in this crowd; so many monstrous 
and diseased limbs, and hideous faces, were 
displayed before us, and pushed forward for 
our inspection, that I have often made my 
way to the cherbuter with my eyes shut, 
whilst Mr. Sherwood led me. On reaching 
the platform I was surrounded by our own 
people, and yet, even there, I scarcely dared to 
look about me. I still imagine that I hear the 
calm, distinct, and musical tones of Henry 
Martyn, as he stood raised above the people, 
endeavouring, by showing the purity of the 
divine law, to convince the unbelievers that 
by their works they were all condemned; and 
that this w r as the case of every man of the 
offspring of Adam, and they therefore needed 
a Saviour who was both willing and able to 
redeem them. From time to time low mur- 
murs and curses would arise in the distance, 
and then roll forward, till they became so 
loud as to drown the voice of this pious one, 
generally concluding with hissing and fierce 
cries. But when the storm passed away, 
again might he be heard going on where he 
had left off, in the same calm, steadfast tone, 
as if he were incapable of irritation from inter- 
ruption. 

"Mr. Martyn himself assisted in giving 

8 



86 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

each person his pice after the address was 
concluded; and when he withdrew to his 
bungalow I have seen him drop, almost faint- 
ing, on a sofa, for he had, as he often said, 
even at that time, a slow inflammation burning 
in his chest, and one which he knew must 
eventually terminate his existence. In conse- 
quence of this, he was usually in much pain 
after any exertion of speaking." 

It was a pleasanter association than this 
which the officer's family had with the mis- 
sionaries in their more domestic meetings. 
"Few," says Mrs. Sherwood: — 

"Few were the evenings which we did not 
spend with Mr. Martyn and Mr. Corrie, and 
twice in the week we all went together to Mr. 
Martyn's domain, the children not being omit- 
ted. First we went to the church bungalow, 
where we had service, and afterwards to his 
house. One or other of these excellent men 
usually expounded to us. Our party consisted 
of some young officers, who were almost 
always with us, a few poor, pious soldiers, 
some orphans of the barracks, and a number 
of our former pupils. We always sang two 
or three hymns from the Calcutta collection, 
and sat at one end of the place of worship, 
the other and larger end not being finished, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 87 

and of course not open. After the service, as 
I said,, we went to the bungalow, and had 
supper, and generally concluded with another 
hymn. Mr. Marty n's principal favourite hymns 
were 'The God of Abraham's praise,' and 
6 O'er the gloomy hills of darkness.' I re- 
member to this hour the spirit of hope and 
of joy with which we were wont to join in 
these words: — 

' O'er the gloomy hills of darkness 

Look, my soul, with hope and praise, 

All the promises do travail 
With a glorious day of grace ; 

Blessed jubilee, 

Let thy glorious morning dawn. 

1 Let the Indian, let the negro, 

Let the rude barbarian see 
That divine and glorious conquest 

Once obtained on Calvary ; 
Let the gospel 
Loud resound from pole to pole.' 

" Oh, what glorious feelings have we enjoyed 
when, Mr. Martyn leading the hymn, we all 
broke forth in one delightful chorus ! On such 
occasions all languor was forgotten, and every 
heart glowed with holy hope." 

" We spent some hours every morning, dur- 
ing the early part of the month of September, 



88 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

in taking short voyages on the river; for 
Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Martyn, and Mr. Come 
hired a pinnace, and we furnished it with a sofa 
and a few chairs and tables. The children 
went with us, and their attendants. Mr. 
Martyn sent a quantity of books, and used to 
take possession of the sofa, with all his books 
about him. He was often studying Hebrew, 
and had huge lexicons lying by him. The 
nurses sat on the floor in the inner room, and 
the rest of us in the outer. Well do I remem- 
ber some of the manoeuvres of little Lucy at 
that time, who had just acquired the power of 
moving about independently of a guiding hand ; 
by this independence she always used to make 
her way to Mr. Martyn when he was by any 
means approachable. On one occasion I re- 
member seeing the little one, with her grave 
yet placid countenance, her silken hair, and 
shoeless feet, step out of the inner room of 
the pinnace with a little mora, which she set 
by Mr. Martyn's couch, then, mounting on it, 
she got upon the sofa, which was low, and next 
seated herself on his huge lexicon. He would 
not suffer her to be disturbed, though he 
required his book every instant. Soon, how- 
ever, weary of this seat, she moved to Mr. 
Martyn's knee, and there she remained, now 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 89 

and then taking his book from him, and pre- 
tending to read; but he would not have her 
removed, for, as he said, she had taken her 
position with him, and she was on no account 
to be sent from him. Little Annie, in the 
mean time, as Miss Corrie used to say of her, 
had more than she could do, in all the various 
exigencies of these voyages, to take care of her- 
self, and keep herself safe and blameless, neat 
and clean; a pretty anxiety ever manifested 
itself on her small face lest we should be over- 
set, or some one should tumble out of the win- 
dow. But, oh ! how dear in their different ways 
were all these little ones to Mr. Corrie ; climb- 
ing about him, leaning upon him, and laughing 
at all his innocent jests. Sweet, most sweet, 
is the remembrance of those excursions on the 
Ganges, and such must they continue ever, till 
memory's power shall pass away." 

During this happy intimacy, it was deter- 
mined to undertake the preparation of a work 
in the language of Hindostan, on the plan of 
the "Pilgrim's Progress." It was found that 
a translation of Bunyan's book would not be 
understood by a people whose ideas were so 
different. It was therefore agreed that Mrs. 
Sherwood should write an Indian Pilgrim's 
Progress, and that Mr. Martyn and Mr. Corrie 
8* 



90 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

would assist her with advice and corrections, 
so as to make it as suitable as possible to the 
taste and comprehension of the natives. 



CHAPTER XII 



HENRY MARTYN'S LAST SABBATH IN CAWNPORE — SCHOOLS OF MR. 

AND MRS. SHERWOOD — " STORIES ON CHURCH CATECHISM" 

"AYAH AND LADY." 

In the month of October, 1810, the little 
company of Christians at Cawnpore had to 
part with Henry Martyn. His health had 
become so frail that the only hope of restora- 
tion was in his making a visit to England. 
But he determined first to travel to Persia, 
with a view to making more perfect his trans- 
lation of the New Testament into the language 
of that country. As Mr. Martyn did not 
live to see his friends either in England or 
India, after his departure from the country at 
this time, it is pleasant to have an account of 
his last Sabbath at Cawnpore, as written by 
one who spent it in his company. Mrs. Sher- 
wood thus describes it: — 

" On the Sabbath before Mr. Martyn left, the 
church was opened, and the bell sounded for 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 91 

the first time over this land of darkness. The 
church was crowded, and there was the band 
of our regiment to lead the singing and the 
chaunting. Sergeant Clarke had been appoint- 
ed as clerk; and there he sat under the desk 
in due form, in his red coat, and went through 
his duty with all due correctness. The Rev. 
Daniel Corrie read prayers, and Mr. Martyn 
preached. That was a day never to be for- 
gotten. Those only who have been for some 
years in a place where there never has been 
public worship can have any idea of the fearful 
effect of its absence, especially among the mass 
of the people. Every prescribed form of pub- 
lic worship certainly has a tendency to become 
nothing more than a form, yet even a form 
may awaken reflection, and any state is better 
than that of perfect deadness. From his first 
arrival at the station, Mr. Martyn had been 
labouring to effect the purpose which he then 
saw completed ; namely, the opening of a place 
of worship. He was permitted to see it, to ad- 
dress the congregation once, and then he was 
summoned to depart. 

" Alas ! he was known to be, even then, in a 
most dangerous state of health, either burnt 
within by slow inflammation, which gave a flush 
to his cheek, or pale as death from weakness 
and lassitude. 



92 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

" On this occasion the bright glow prevailed 
— a brilliant light shone from his eyes — he was 
filled with hope and joy ; he saw the dawn of 
better things, he thought, at Cawnpore, and 
most eloquent, earnest, and affectionate was 
his address to the congregation. Our usual 
party accompanied him back to his bungalow, 
where, being arrived, he sank, as was often 
his way, nearly fainting, on a sofa in the hall. 
Soon, however, he revived a little, and called 
us all about him to sing. It was then that we 
sang to him that sweet hymn which thus 
begins : — 

' God, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come, 
Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
And our eternal home.' 

" We all dined early together, and then re- 
turned with our little ones to enjoy some rest 
and quiet ; but when the sun began to descend 
to the horizon we again went over to Mr. Mar- 
tyn's bungalow, to hear his last address to the 
Fakeers. It was one of those sickly, hazy, 
burning evenings, which I have before de- 
scribed, and the scene was precisely such a one 
as I have recounted above. Mr. Martyn near- 
ly fainted again after this effort, and when he 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

got to his house, with his friends about him, 
he told us that he was afraid he had not been 
the means of doing the smallest good to any 
one of the strange people whom he had thus 
so often addressed. He did not even then 
know of the impression he had been enabled to 
make, on one of these occasions, on Sheik 
Saleh. On the Monday our beloved friend 
went to* his boats, which lay at the Ghaut, 
nearest the bungalow; but in the cool of the 
evening, however, whilst Miss Corrie and my- 
self were taking the air in our tonjons, he came 
after us on horseback. There was a gentle 
sadness in his aspect as he accompanied me 
home ; and Miss Corrie came also. Once again 
we all supped together, and united in one last 
hymn. We were all low, very, very low; we 
could never expect to behold again that face 
which we then saw — to hear again that voice, 
or to be again elevated and instructed by that 
conversation. It was impossible to hope that 
he would survive the fatigue of such a journey 
as he meditated. Often and often, when think- 
ing of him, have these verses, so frequently 
sung by him, come to my mind : — 

1 E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream 
Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be till I die. 



94 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, 

I'll sing thy power to save, 
When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue 

Is silent in the grave.' 

" The parting moment, when that holy man 
arose to leave us, blessing our little children, 
and blessing us, was deeply sad; we never 
expected to see him more, and we never did." 

Mrs. Sherwood continued to exert* herself 
in the particular department of benevolence 
which, at the same time, seemed to require the 
greatest attention and suited her taste and 
means. This was the care of the many ne- 
glected and helpless children, principally of 
English parentage, which were to be found at 
every military station. After Mr. Martyn's 
departure, she found in the Rev. Mr. Corrie 
and his sister ready helpers in all her plans. 
The children of the officers and common 
soldiers were gathered into schools, and taught 
every day in separate apartments for boys and 
girls. A small house was taken, in which 
several motherless girls were settled under the 
care of a soldier's wife. Captain Sherwood 
partook of his wife's spirit, and appropriated a 
room for the use of any young soldiers who 
wished to improve themselves in reading and 
writing, and employed one or two of the most 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 95 

capable religious men to attend and give 
instruction. All these scholars of different 
ages met together every morning before going 
to their several apartments, and began the 
day with a hymn and prayer and a portion 
of Scripture, in the way of family worship. 

Mrs. Sherwood continued to employ her 
pen in the good cause. Having finished the 
"Indian Pilgrim," she began another of those 
works which, though at first designed for her 
school in India, have become known and 
popular in the English and American world. 
This was her "Stories on the Church Cate- 
chism." 

Wherever education, and especially that 
which is conducted on religious principles, is 
introduced, its advantages will soon be seen, 
and no other inducement will be needed 
among wise observers to make them desirous 
of extending its benefits. Mrs. Sherwood's 
schools were soon appreciated. She says : — 

"I must here mention a set of children, two 
or three of whom I particularly remember, who 
came under my care at this time. They were 
the half-caste children of European officers and 
black women; their mothers lived about the 
cantonments, supported by the European gen- 
tlemen. Many of them were well supplied 



96 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

with mone}^ keeping their servants, and prob- 
ably possessing a bullock-coach, in which they 
sat like tailors on a board. Children of this 
description of families are usually sent to Cal- 
cutta or to Europe for education, but if not, 
they are left by the father to reside with the 
mother, and have no means whatever of ed- 
ucation, growing up too often in total ignorance 
of all that is right, being initiated in vice from 
their tenderest infancy. When our school be- 
gan to be talked of in Cawnpore, some of these 
poor mothers became anxious to profit by it. 
and sent their children. In several instances, 
they appeared before our bungalow in their 
bullock-coach, without ceremony or previous 
warning, accompanied probably by some old 
Ayah, and merely saying in broken English, 
"They were come to learn." To turn such 
petitioners back again would have been quite 
out of the question with a christian, for I felt 
true pity for them, so we always took them in, 
and did what we could for them. 

"I particularly recollect some of these half- 
caste children who came to me in the way I 
have just spoken of at Cawnpore ; and amongst 
the rest were two sisters about thirteen and 
fourteen, tall, slender, and, though dark, very 
delicate girls in form and feature. They wore 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 97 

white muslin frocks and coloured red shoes, 
with golden ear-rings and cornelian necklaces. 
Their hair, which was glossy black, was neatly 
braided, and partly knotted at the top of the 
head. They spoke a sort of broken, clipped 
English ; they had fine teeth and eyes. They 
knew not a single letter, and could do nothing 
but mark on fine canvass. They were very 
civil and well behaved externally, but so pro- 
foundly ignorant that they had perhaps never 
heard the name of Christ. These, and many 
such as these, are the daughters of Europeans, 
of Englishmen and English gentlemen. I shall 
only say that, with one sort and another, how- 
ever, I had an immense school at Cawnpore, 
and I had only Sergeant Clarke to assist me ; 
and for several days in every month, - 1 was 
even deprived of him. 

"As I classed the children, and kept the 
girls in one room and the boys in another, it 
was quite beyond all possibility to attend to 
both. So I arranged, that Mrs. Parker should 
sit with the girls and keep them to their sew- 
ing, whilst I was with the boys, and thus I 
was greatly relieved." 

In July, 1811, another daughter was added 
to Mrs. Sherwood's family. She received the 
name of Emily. Her oldest child, it will be 

9 



98 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

remembered, was with her grandmother in 
England; two children had died in India, and 
Lucy and Emily were the only ones with 
their mother. In a few months her cares were 
still further increased by the removal of their 
chaplain and friend, Mr. Corrie, to Agra. He 
committed his Hindostanee schools to the 
oversight of the captain and his wife, so far 
that once every day the native master who 
taught them was required to bring the scholars 
to let Mrs. Sherwood see their writing and 
hear them recite. She also engaged to over- 
see the clothing and general condition of sev- 
eral boys for whom Mr. Corrie provided. 
How readily both she and her husband under- 
took any work of benevolence which provi- 
dence put in their way, may be seen from such 
instances as the following: — 

" It was about this tin\e that we took, as a 
new intimate into our family, the fine boy my 
sister had commenced instructing at Canter- 
bury, [in England.] Mr. Sherwood saw him 
lounging at a tent door, his mother being 
within; he was the only boy of that age who 
had not been put on the strength of the regi- 
ment. 'John,' said Mr. Sherwood, 'will }'ou 
come with me ?' And then addressing his 
mother, who was now married again, ' Mrs. H., 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 99 

shall I take your son?' he said. 'Yes, sir/ 
she answered, 'gladly any where with you, sir/ 
The boy stepped into Mr. Sherwood's gig, and 
it might be said that his whole future history 
turned on that small circumstance. 

" Mr. Sherwood brought him to me in the 
upper bungalow, saying, 'I have brought you 
a present; will you have it?' 'Of course/ 
was my reply, and soon the boy was established 
as one of our family, and soon I set him to 
study Hindostanee, and he became a great help 
to me in the school, and God blessed this 
adoption in a remarkable manner. There are 
no means, however small and humble, which 
in the hands of God may not be blessed to the 
production of incalculable good, whereas all 
human exertions, when not so blessed, end 
only in disappointment." 

Mr. Sherwood had become so much interest- 
ed for the religious character of the natives 
in the place, that when Mr. Corrie's removal 
would have broken up a service he had been 
in the habit of holding for the humblest class 
of persons, he undertook to keep up the 
meetings himself every Sabbath and Wednes- 
day. His wife was still more venturesome; 
for Mrs. Hawkins, one of her pious friends, 
having suggested the possibility of reviving 



100 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

such meetings as Mr. Martyn had been ac- 
customed to hold with the most wretched 
and superstitious Mussulmauns and Hindoos, 
they agreed to attempt it, and to employ an 
old man named Bartholomew to read and 
speak to them. This person is described in 
the "Indian Pilgrim" as the man found in the 
Serai by Goonah Purist. Mrs. Sherwood's 
words can best tell the manner of the experi- 
ment and its result. 

" The small house, in which we had located 
our little establishment of orphans in the church 
compound, stood on a raised platform, and on 
that was placed Bartholomew to address the 
beggars. Thither Mrs. Hawkins and myself 
repaired, and took our seats beside him. On 
that memorable Sabbath evening in May, we 
were making an attempt to keep up what Mr. 
Martyn had done. Scarcely, however, were we 
seated, when, behold, there poured into the 
space before us, not only all the Yogees, Fa- 
keers, and rogues of that description which the 
neighbourhood might afford, but the king of 
the beggars himself, wearing his peculiar badge, 
by which he was known immediately to the 
few native servants who were with us. These 
persons did not approach with the humble, 
crouching air of beggars, but with such strong 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. . 101 

indications of defiance and insult that Mrs. 
Hawkins, who was a person of very quick feel- 
ings of all kinds, rushed into the small house 
near the door of which we were standing, 
leaving me to appease the strange mob, which 
was prepared for any violence of tongue, for 
already they had saluted us with groans and 
hisses. 

" I was frightened, but I dealt out the pice 
[coin] which Mrs. Hawkins had brought in, 
and the men went out of the compound in 
straggling parties, though not without bestow- 
ing a few of their blessings of the wrong kind 
upon us, under the idea that we were wishing 
to bribe them to give up those superstitions 
upon which they lived. There is no language, 
probably, on earth so redundant in curses as 
the Hindostanee, and it was often very happy 
for me that I did not understand the low words 
in common use in that language. Of course we 
never dared renew our attempts at converting 
the Fakeers, as they had come for the money 
and nothing else, and for this, no doubt, they 
would come again and again, without permit- 
ting old Bartholomew to utter a word that 
could be heard." 

This miserable class of the inhabitants of 
India is fully described in the stories written 



102 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

by Mrs. Sherwood at this time under the title 
of "The Ayah and Lady;" many of them in- 
deed are real histories. 

"Another proposition of dear Mrs. Hawk- 
4 ins' at this period proved more successful than 
our affair with the Fakeers ; and this was the 
collecting of all the servants of both families 
in our large hall every morning, and engaging 
the very intelligent Moonshee who had been 
lately occupied with the translations to read 
aloud a chapter of the Old Testament in Hin- 
dostanee. Well do I remember the first morn- 
ing we made our attempt; I was not almost, 
but entirely frightened. We mustered all the 
w T hite people we could, and all the Christians. 
The Moonshee stood with his book, — there 
was the delay of a moment or two, and then 
the native servants came pouring in from both 
houses. The Moonshee then began to read 
aloud, slowly and clearly, the first and second 
chapters of Genesis. The Hindoos and Mus- 
sulmauns were all attention. When the read- 
ing ceased, some said, 'The words are good, 
very good; we will hear more;' and they all 
walked quietly out, whilst the Christians pres- 
ent, white and black, in deep thankfulness 
knelt down to prayer. 

" We never found the smallest difficulty in 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 103 

carrying on this plan, for the native servants 
all came willingly and regularly." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MEERUT— " GEORGE DESMOND 



In the fall of the year, 1812, the regiment 
was ordered to proceed to Meerut, a few days' 
journey from Cawnpore. No sooner were 
they settled in their new abode than provision 
for religious worship, and for the instruction 
of the children was resumed, as earnestly as 
if it was part of the official business of the 
paymaster's wife. In the school, Mrs. Sher- 
wood was relieved by the appointment of a 
schoolmaster to teach the children of the 
regiment, but it was necessary to establish 
under her own inspection a school for the 
natives. 

"For some days," she says, "the natives in 
the bazaar only laughed at those we sent to 
inquire for children, saying, 'that their chil- 
dren knew more Hindostanee than we could 
teach them.' At length a native came to the 
door to sell thread, and he saw one of our 
children with a Hindostanee book in her hand, 



104 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

on which he said that he could read himself. 
We gave him a little volume called ' Scripture 
Characters,' and he promised to read it. We 
inquired if he could hire us a schoolmaster, 
and the next day he sent us an old grey- 
bearded pedagogue, with thirteen boys; and 
we agreed to give the old man four rupees a 
month, and two annas a head for each boy he 
could collect. We appointed him a room in 
the stable for his school, and ordered him to 
come at eleven every day for the boys to 
repeat their lessons ; and during the month of 
December the average number kept up to 
eleven. Few of these boys could tell a single 
letter when they came. We had nineteen on 
our books at the end of the month ; they were 
chiefly of low grade, few of them had a jacket, 
and they were all smeared with oil, and smelt 
of garlick. 

"Twice a day our native school was par- 
aded in the verandah, and in the morning, with 
the assistance of the Moonshee and John, I 
examined what had been done during the last 
day, and marked the progress in the books. 
In the afternoon they passed along the veran- 
dah, announcing their presence by the repeti- 
tion of the ten commandments in Hindos- 
tanee. They stood in a row opposite my 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 105 

dressing window, all repeating together; after 
which they were taken back to their school- 
house at the master shaking his cane. Upon 
their departure, my dear Mrs. Mawby made 
her appearance, and we generally took our 
airing together. Our house was the only 
depository of the Scriptures in that part of 
India. We had been the first to bring the 
strawberry-plant up the country ; but we were 
far more highly blest in being permitted to 
bring the translated and printed word of God, 
before all others, into the province of Delhi." 
"As we were much cramped for room, Mr. 
Sherwood caused a small building to be erect- 
ed amongst fragrant flowers, approached by 
a shadowy grape terrace walk. This he fitted 
up with benches and wall shades, and it 
became our only place of worship. Our 
chaplain, Mr. Parson, came generally twice or 
three times a week to perform the service to 
the white people, and it was attended by as 
many of all degrees as could crowd into it. We 
had also the Christian service conducted in 
Hindostanee in it. It was used for the regi- 
mental school, and after evening parade it was 
at the service of the religious men of the 
regiment, who often met there. Never shall 
I forget the sweet feelings which we had 



106 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

when the sound of their simple hymns used 
to reach us within the bungalow, as we sat 
with our doors open. 

"In our Hindostanee service, which was 
performed by Mr. Sherwood, we used the 
Liturgy of our church, translated under the 
inspection of Mr. Corrie, together with some 
hymns which were adapted to some of the old 
and simple melodies of the country by Mrs. 
Hawkins. Instead of a sermon, portions of 
the Bible were read, and our own orphans and 
myself were clerks, choristers, and all officials 
needful. Our first congregations consisted of 
eight black women. One especially of our 
girls, Mary Parsons, had a remarkably fine 
voice, my own and Mr. Sherwood's were both 
good and powerful, and another orphan, Sarah, 
showed a decided talent for music; thus we 
were quite able to manage the musical depart- 
ment of our services." 

" The history of George Desmond," which 
was the next work which Mrs. Sherwood 
wrote, was suggested by her witnessing what 
is called a Nautch, an exhibition of singing, 
dancing, and playing on instruments by young 
girls trained to it as a business. These per- 
sons are of very depraved characters, and 
exercise a ruinous influence over the European 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 107 

youth who fall into their company. To expose 
this danger, and warn the . families of her 
countrymen against it, was the great object 
of this half fictitious and half actual nar- 
rative. 

It was at Meerut tidings came to the Sher- 
woods of the death of Henry Martyn, which 
took place at Tocat, on the borders of Turkey, 
on the 16th of October, 1812. The name 
of this beloved friend was given to the son 
of Mrs. Sherwood, who was born in July, 1813. 

The hearts of this devoted family were 
greatly rejoiced by evidence that their evan- 
gelical occupations were not without fruit. In 
January, 1814, they had the happiness of 
witnessing the baptism of several converts at 
Meerut. 

" Numbers of Europeans from different quar- 
ters of the station attended. The little chapel 
was crowded to overflowing, and most affecting 
indeed was the sight. Few persons could re- 
strain their tears, when Mr. Corrie extended 
his hand to raise the silver curls which clus- 
tered upon the brow of Monghool Dass, one of 
the most sincere of the converts. 

" After the reception of these natives into 
the visible Church, we sang together these 
words : — 



108 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

' Proclaim, saith Christ, my wondrous grace 

To all the sons of men ; 
He that believes and is baptized 

Salvation shall obtain.' 

" How delightfully passed that Sabbath ! — 
how sweet was our private intercourse with 
Mr. Come ! He brought our children many 
Hindostanee hymns, set to ancient Oriental 
melodies, which they were to sing at the Hin- 
doo services, and we all together sang a hymn, 
which I find in my journal designated by this 
title :— 

" WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST. 

' In Britain's laud of light my miud 
To Jesus and his love was blind, 
Till, wandering midst the heathen far, 
Lo in the east I saw his star. 

' Oh, should my steps, which distant roam, 
Attain once more my native home, 
Better than India's wealth by far, 
I'll speak the worth of Bethlehem's star.' 

" There is little merit in the composition of 
this hymn ; but it had a peculiar interest for 
us at that time, and the sentiment which it 
professes must ever retain its interest. These, 
his friends and companions of many happy 
days, never saw Mr. Come again in India, in 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 109 

his own especial province, where he was most 
happy, most blessed, and most at home. Lan- 
guor and disease soon after this seized on Mrs. 
Corrie, and Mr. Come himself became so dis- 
ordered by the burning seasons of the higher 
provinces, that he was compelled to give up 
Agra and proceed to England for a while." 

The house of the Sherwoods was ever open 
as a refuge for the poor orphan and other 
friendless children. Cases like the following 
frequently occurred: 

"It was in the end of the Spring that one 
day Sally, on returning home, told me that she 
had seen a white baby in a hut in the Bazaar. 
I sent to inquire about it, and found that there 
was a white infant, an orphan, who had been 
left by some English soldiers, not ours, with 
an old black woman in a hut. His name was 
Edward Kitchen, and when I went to see him 
he was about a year and a half old, and such 
a skeleton I had hardly ever beheld. We 
called him Suktee, which signifies dry, for he 
was mere bones. I got him into the compound 
where I provided him with a wet-nurse. He 
was brought to the bungalow every day, and 
we saw that he was washed, fed, and had clean 
clothes ; we took care of him as long as we 
were at Meerut, and before I left India I got 

10 



110 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

him sent to the orphan-school at Madras, under 
the protection of a pious chaplain there, and I 
have heard that he is doing well. 

"At the same time that we discovered 
Suktee, I was told other stories which made 
my heart ache, but for which I had no rem- 
edy. It was not an uncommon occurrence 
to find the orphan children of natives left to 
perish of hunger in the streets of the village, 
whilst the inhabitants looked on with total 
apathy. One little girl had lately died in 
this way in our own regimental bazaar. 

"Who can describe, or even imagine, the 
cruelties which prevail in the dark corners of 
the earth ? It is in the small details of life 
that the natural depravity makes itself appar- 
ent, for even the believer — though God in 
mercy restrains him from gross offences in 
most instances — is still left sufficiently to him- 
self to understand what he might be without 
restraining grace." 

"I could not endure to witness the suffer- 
ings of the child whom I have mentioned 
before as little Mary Parsons. Her cries, 
when beaten, reached even to the bungalow, 
and I could not bear to hear them. But what 
made me most angry was, that she' was sent 
many times on most days to the barracks. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. Ill 

Her father was miserable about her. He had 
bought her a little arm-chair of Sessoo wood, 
and one evening she came weeping to me, and 
saying, 'Oh! ma'am, give me a corner of your 
house, where I may put my chair and sit all 
day.' I could not bear this; my mind was 
made up. I got permission from Mr. Sher- 
wood, and we adopted the child. How thank- 
fully did her father fetch her box from the 
lodge ! how happy was the rescued child !" 

In the month of October, 1814, the regi- 
ment was again ordered to take up its march. 
The object was to punish a tribe in the Him- 
alayan mountains which had been invading 
and robbing the plains in their neighbourhood. 
On this occasion the women and children of 
the regiment were to remain at Meerut, till 
the men should return from the war. Mrs. 
Sherwood describes the separation as a very 
trying one to those who had been so long 
mingling together in religious services, and in 
all the pleasant intercourse of a Christian 
society, where the difference in the grades of 
life were lost sight of, in the consciousness* of 
the common bond of faith that united them to 
one another in Christ. She thus wrote : — 

u The Sunday before the march was an 
affecting day in every English house in the 



112 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

station, and on some accounts particularly so 
to me. Mr. Leonard, a judge's writer, a 
friend of Mr. Bowley's, from the city, officiated 
at the Hindostanee service, and undertook it 
during Mr. Sherwood's absence. At the ten 
o'clock service, there were few present except 
the usual religious society. After the service, 
Mr. Sherwood spoke to them in the kindest 
and most affecting manner, pressing upon 
them a continued attention to their religious 
duties in the camp, giving them each a little 
work, which he thought particularly suitable 
to their state, and promising them the use of 
his tent for their evening meetings. We 
could not part on this occasion without tears. 
Two years before, these pious men had given 
me a 'Rippon's Hymn Book,' with all their 
names inscribed on the first page. 

" Underneath they had written this verse — 

' Oh, that you may, with steady, even pace, 
Pass forward till you gain that heavenly place 
Where you and we, we hope, at last shall meet, 
And sit like Mary at the Saviour's feet ! 
There shall we in his glorious presence shine — 
Oh, may this happy lot be yours and mine !' 

" These were the same good men who, when 
we first came to India, met in the jungles and 
ravines to pray and read their Bibles; the 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 113 

same who had attended in Mr. Martyn's and 
Mr. Corrie's house ; the same who had met in 
our little chapel at Meerut for many of the 
last months; and the same to whom Mr. Sher- 
wood promised the use of his tent, which 
proved to many of them their last earthly 
meeting-house. 

"It was rather a remarkable circumstance 
that several of these soldiers, especially Abra- 
ham Hays, though they had already gone 
through many campaigns, were fully persuaded 
that they should never return from this. In 
consequence of this presentiment, they brought 
me their watches, tea-spoons, and other valu- 
ables, begging me to take care of them for 
those they loved." 

From a letter which Mrs. Sherwood wrote 
to her mother in England, when her husband 
had been absent more than two months, the 
following extracts are taken to show what 
were some of her employments and trials in 
his absence: 

"'Dear Henry, from w T hom I often hear, is 
well, and I hope doing good wherever he 
goes. His tent is a place of worship to all 
devoutly disposed. He is happy in the 
acquaintance of a pious young officer of the 
name of Tomkins, whose father lives near 
10* 



114 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

Bromyard. As to myself, I am at Meerut, 
and have much upon my hands, having three 
dear babes of my own, the two orphans, and 
Henry's nurse's child in the house, besides the 
care of two infants, whose nurses I have to 
overlook. 1 have also an English and a 
Hindostanee school to see to, the latter daily, 
besides giving attention to the Hindostanee 
service, which, without care, would have 
dropped through on Mr. Sherwood's going to 
the camp; but, by the express ordination of 
providence, it has suddenly revived, and be- 
come more flourishing than ever. 

" < The Almighty has kept me in great peace 
of mind amidst all these employments, and 
amongst many alarms attendant upon being 
situated near the seat of war. I have given 
much of my time since the regiment went, to 
the education of my children, and 1 have 
brought them amazingly forward during these 
two months. Sarah, one of my orphans, can 
read Hindostanee with much facility, so as to 
be able to perform the clerk's part in the Hin- 
dostanee service. Having an opportunity, I 
am getting her taught to read Persian, and 
also to read the old Sanscrit character. I 
write questions from the Bible for my mother- 
less girls, and make them bring me the 



LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 115 

answers neatly written in English, and I find 
that this exercise greatly sharpens their under- 
standings. Mary Parsons, the eldest, begins 
to be very useful amongst the children, and 
can carry keys and take care of clothes, so 
that already she pays me somewhat for my 
trouble. 

"' You can form no idea, my beloved mother, 
of the spirit which is required in the manage- 
ment of a family in India, particularly when 
the master is not at home, or rather gone out 
in dangerous warfare. The natives have no 
respect for females. Four or five men walk 
into the parlour, and quarrel all together before 
your face, using the lowest and most abusive 
language, and trying in the night to frighten you 
with cries of alarm of thieves and fire. The 
night after Henry went away, one of the men 
appointed as a guard or watchman came to my 
window, close to my bed's head, setting up a 
great howl and firing off a gun, exclaiming at 
the same time in Hindostanee, " Come, come, 
ye thieves, come, come, and I will destroy 
you; I will cut you down; there they are, 
there the}' run." I thought of "Don Quix- 
ote" and the flock of sheep to which he called 
out so manfully, and could not help laughing, 
because I knew the men's tricks; but Mary 



116 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

and Sally and Lucy, who were in another 
room, were terribly scared. Some ladies in 
the station, who had not been so long in the 
country as myself, were almost frightened into 
fits by the alarming ways of these watchmen. 
I own that they have made my heart beat a 
little when they cry " Fire ;" but of late they 
have kept themselves quieter, and the officer 
left here has been so kind as to let me have an 
invalid soldier of the regiment to sleep in the 
house, which has set all things to rights. 

"'The hooping-cough is so prevalent just 
round us that I have resolved to move, and 
go into a small house which Mr. Parson, our 
chaplain, possesses within the walls of his 
grounds, where 1 hope to remain quiet, please 
God, till Mr. Sherwood's return, of which I 
have as yet no distinct hope; but thank God 
he is well, in the camp among the hills, and 
not only well but doing good, I trust. He 
goes about among the natives with the other 
officer, Mr. Tomkins, and distributes the Bible 
in their language. He performs divine service 
in his tent on Sabbaths and Wednesdays, and 
is perhaps the first person who ever uttered 
the words of God in the Indian Caucasus, or 
carried the Holy Bible there in the language 
of the natives. Are not these sweet and con- 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 117 

soling circumstances amid all the fears and 
agitations of this life?'" 



CHAPTER XIV. 



PERMUNUND BERHAMPORE — CALCUTTA SERAMPORE MISSION- 
ARIES — MR. MAY — RETURN TO ENGLAND. 

One Sabbath morning, during the absence 
of the regiment, the congregation had as- 
sembled at the little chapel at Meerut, but 
illness prevented the chaplain from coming to 
conduct the services. Mrs. Sherwood, on 
whom devolved all such cares, was in great 
perplexity as to what was to be done, when 
she saw two well dressed natives approaching. 
They told her they had been sent by Mr. 
Chamberlayne, a Baptist missionary; one of 
them, whose name was Permunund, said that 
he had been converted to Christianity under 
the instruction of Mr. Chamberlayne, and had 
been in the habit of assisting him in public 
worship. He added that when he felt that 
his infant children, as well as himself, should 
be baptized, Mr. Chamberlayne advised him 
to consult Christians of some other church 
than his own, which did not admit infants to 
baptism. The Baptist missionary at the same 



118 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

time recommended him to find out Mrs. Sher- 
wood, probably having become acquainted 
with her character and opinions from reading 
her works. This advice had brought Per- 
munund and his companion to Meerut. Upon 
this introduction, Mrs. Sherwood asked the 
stranger to conduct the services for the wait- 
ing congregation; and under her direction as 
to the mode of using the Liturgy of the 
Church of England, he read it in the Hin- 
dostanee version. When he had gone accur- 
ately through all the other parts of the ser- 
vice, he expounded a chapter of the New 
Testament, in a very appropriate manner. The 
appearance of this person seemed in every 
way so providential, that Mrs. Sherwood 
engaged him at once to remain for a few 
months to perform the service in the chapel, 
overlook the native schoolmaster, and instruct 
the children. He very soon opened a room 
in the old part of Meerut for reading and 
expounding the Scriptures. Having a fine 
voice, he took great pains to instruct the 
English children in singing Hindostanee hymns, 
and adapted many old Indian airs to the 
hymns he found in use. 

Captain Sherwood did not return from the 
campaign until February, 1815, and then only 



LIFE OF MRS. SHErvWOOD. 119 

for a visit. His wife suffered less from anxiety 
during his absence than most of the female 
relatives of the officers and soldiers who were 
left behind, because being paymaster his duties 
did. not expose him so much to the dangers of 
battle. Several hundred of the regiment 
returned no more, having fallen in the battles 
which had to be fought before the object of 
their service was secured. Soon after his 
return a daughter was added to his family — 
making the third child they had with them in 
India. 

In a few months the regiment was ordered 
to Berhampore. The mode of travelling for 
the officers' family was very different from 
what we are accustomed to. " Our intention 
was to make the first move in the night, 
and our line of march was thus arranged: 
Mr. Sherwood leading the way on horseback, 
myself and baby in the first palanquin, my 
little bo}^ and his nurse in the second, my 
little girls and their attendants in a bullock- 
coach belonging to a friend, and the foster 
brother of my son, with his nurse in attendance, 
in a second bullock-coach ; and, lastly, a one- 
horse carriage, also borrowed, containing the 
orphans we had adopted; six modes of con- 
veyance in all, added to which we had seven- 



120 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

teen Coolies, carrying provisions and clothes in 
baskets slung on bamboos." 

In this manner, after several days' journey, 
the party reached Berhampore. But here new 
orders were received requiring the regiment 
to proceed to Calcutta, and there to embark 
for Madras. Mr. Sherwood, however, now 
asked permission to take two years' respite from 
his duties and make a visit to England. This 
being granted, he proceeded with his family to 
Calcutta and engaged their passage for Liver- 
pool. Two of their orphan children were to ac- 
company them. While waiting for the sailing of 
the vessel, they became acquainted with Mr. 
Marshman, and one of the young Careys, so 
well known in the history of the missions in 
India, and also with Mr. May, who is remem- 
bered from his visit to the United States, as 
well as during his residence in Calcutta, for 
his peculiar success in interesting children in 
religious truth. They also visited the Bap- 
tist Mission at Serampore, and saw Dr. 
Carey, Mr. Ward, and their fellow-labourers, 
in the midst of those active operations which 
have placed their names, and that of the 
Serampore institution, in so honourable a place. 
The following extracts from Mrs. Sherwood's 
autobiography will be interesting. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 121 

" My Lucy's late Dhaye, who had come to 
Calcutta with her lady, the niece of Lady 
Loudon, came to see her child. Poor Piaree, 
how tender was the meeting, between her and 
her nursling; how dearly did Lucy love her 
nurse; how earnestly did she strive in after 
years, by saving her pocket money, to effect 
means by which her beloved Piaree might be 
taught the truth ; how often did she pray for 
her, that they might meet in glory; how many 
were the little tokens of affection sent to her ! 
And when, my Lucy was no more, I found 
amongst her papers, prayers for this poor 
creature, and a letter and presents to be sent 
to her. 

"It was in consequence of the strong affec- 
tion of my Lucy for Piaree that I was induced 
to write the little tale of 'Lucy and her 
Dhaye,' which is, in many points, true." 

"Aldeen is on the banks of the Ganges, 
about fourteen miles above Calcutta, within a 
short walk of the Baptist Missionary Establish- 
ment at Serampore. It is a puckah house, 
situated in extensive grounds, ornamented by 
various beautiful trees, amongst which two 
towering palms form a marked feature. 

" In the grounds of Aldeen, itself now be- 
longing to the estate, is an ancient pagoda, 
11 



122 LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 

which, having probably suffered some imagi- 
nary pollution, was forsaken. The Rev. David 
Brown, of holy memory, obtained possession 
of it, repaired and beautified it, fitting it up 
with glass-doors, and making it his study; 
and, from the extraordinary thickness of the 
walls, it proved cooler than could have been 
expected. Behind it there was a long stone 
terrace walk, of ancient construction. Mr. 
Brown cleaned this, and adorned it on each 
side with flowering shrubs; there he used to 
walk, and meditate, and pray. Near to the 
entrance of this pagoda is an immense Brah- 
minee fig tree, under the cool arcades of which 
our children used to play, as Mr. Brown's 
children had done before them, tying the 
drooping branches together, and forming swings. 
In that pagoda, and on the terrace behind, Mr. 
Brown for many years offered up his prayers 
for a blessing on the Indian Church. There 
he was accustomed to converse with the holy 
and heavenly Henry Martyn and the no less 
holy Daniel Corrie; men whose memories must 
be ever dear to those who love the Lord. This 
good man saw his prayers answered in the 
very place in which he made his petitions. 
The Baptist Missionary Establishment was 
within a quarter of an hour's walk higher up 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 123 

the river, and on the same side of Aldeen; it 
was like a bee-hive of busy people, for there 
were many buildings belonging to the establish- 
ment, several dwelling-houses, a chapel, a 
school for native boys, and schools for boys 
and girls of higher degree, and printing offices, 
in which were types for twenty languages, a 
paper manufactory, and innumerable small 
dwellings for Christian disciples." 

" I sat by Mr. Ward, who talked much with 
me. The scene was a curious one, so strange 
a variety of people. I brought most of the 
children with me. After tea Mr. Marshman 
took us into his garden, in which he much de- 
lighted. He had lately received some plants 
from England in a box of soil, and he must 
needs set each child on the box, that they might 
say they had been on English ground. After 
our walk every one repaired to service in the 
chapel. 

" Dr. Carey was a fine old gentleman, fond 
of botany and ornithology. He had a beauti- 
ful aviary, where his birds dwelt in all the 
luxury of Indian queens, though, like them, 
deprived of liberty. We left our little chuck- 
oor under his care, and we went with the 
children to take leave of the bird. The same 
evening Mr. Sherwood heard Mr. Ward pffaeh 



124 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

to the workmen in the printing house; but he 
did not understand the language, which was 
different from what he had learnt. The mission- 
aries tell us that they have baptized eight 
hundred persons since they arrived in India. 
The number is great when it is considered 
that they entered almost upon unbroken ground, 
and they never baptize children. Mr. Marsh- 
man had then one hundred native scholars at 
Serampore. In the chapel, Dr. Carey propound- 
ed a text, and Mr. Ward preached upon it. 
The congregation was English, or so called, 
for many were present who never had, and 
probably never would see England. The preach- 
er dwelt particularly on the providence of God, 
and touched upon the good which he supposed 
had arisen from the French revolution in 
separating good from evil, which is no doubt 
the effect of all convulsions in the political 
world. 

" Mr. Marshman next took up the discourse, 
and showed how much good had been produced 
to the overthrow of the long established system 
of polytheism, by the irruption of the northern 
hordes in the dark ages. 

" This evening, whilst walking in the grounds 
at Aldeen, we heard the noise of horns, and 
drufns, and tinkling cvmbals ; we did not think 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 125 

much of them, as they were very usual sounds 
to us. Presently we saw a smoke and flames 
rising above the trees beyond the domain, and, 
at the same time, several of the missionaries 
came rushing along the Aldeen grounds toward 
the fire. ' A Suttee ! a Suttee !' [the burning 
of a widow with the dead body of her husband] 
they cried, as they ran by; 'we fear we are 
too late.' As the little ones caught and under- 
stood the words, they ran too, Lucy at their 
head, as if they would stop this work of fiends. 
The fire continued to blaze, and the infernal 
music to fill the air. Presently those who had 
ran came back ; the work of death was con- 
cluded before they could reach the place. Our 
little ones cried bitterly. It was an awful and 
affecting circumstance." 

Provision was made, through Mr. Thomason 
and other friends, for the orphans whom Mrs. 
Sherwood could not take with her on the 
voyage. The orphan asylums and schools at 
Calcutta furnished excellent homes for the 
children for whom she had done so much. 
Mr. Sherwood and his household at length 
embarked, and they arrived in England in the 
summer of 1816 ; having made a journey of 
seventeen thousand miles from Meerut. 
11* 



126 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WORCESTER — WICK ORPHANS VISIT TO FRANCE " HENRY MIL- 

NER" AND OTHER BOOKS MRS. FRY " LADY OF THE MANOR." 

Upon her return from India, Mrs. Sherwood 
found her mother and her daughter living at 
Worcester. Our readers will be curious to 
know, from her own description, how the three 
met after so long a separation, and what new 
arrangements were made for their future life, 
after they determined that it was not their 
duty to return to India. But she says : — 

" I cannot attempt to describe in words the 
effect of seeing my beloved child again, the 
intense interest of the meeting, and the 
strangeness of finding myself the mother of 
an almost grown-up girl. I could scarcely 
realize the idea that the daughter now before 
me was the infant Mary I had left. The shy- 
ness, and yet strong affection, the curiosity, 
and yet fear of our feelings, made up some- 
thing more than pleasure, something too much 
for human nature; but I despair of express- 
ing it. 

"Alas ! when I saw my own beloved mother, 
I learnt that death had set its icy hand upon 
her. She was much and fearfully changed, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 127 

for she had every external appearance of 
extreme decrepitude. The next week we 
arranged our plans for some months to come, 
taking lodgings for awhile in one of the sub- 
urbs of the city of Worcester. I felt I could 
never leave my parent again as soon as I knew 
her situation, and she seemed to rest in the 
persuasion I never would." 

Her mother did not long survive Mrs. Sher- 
wood's return. After her decease, they took 
up their residence at a place called Wick, 
between Worcester and Malvern. Several 
friends had urged Mr. Sherwood to prepare 
for the ministry, and he actually began to 
study the Scriptures in the original; but 
probably on account of his age, and the habits 
of a military life, he did not prosecute the 
matter further. Neither he nor his wife, how- 
ever, ceased to occupy themselves usefully as 
they had opportunity. For a time Mrs. Sher- 
wood had private pupils, besides the orphan 
children and her own, whom she instructed. 

" Behold us," she says, " domesticated in this 
lovely place, Mr. Sherwood and myself, our 
five children, Mary, or, as we now called her, 
Henrietta, Lucy, Emily, Henry, and Sophia, 
our two Indian orphans, Mary and Sally, and 
the motherless Elize. My mother's young 



128 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

attendant and her old housekeeper were left 
to our protection and support, which they 
deserved for their fidelity to our lamented 
parent. 

" These, with two indoor servants and our 
pupils, made up our rather large party for a 
few months. As soon as we had settled our- 
selves, Captain Sherwood began a little Sab- 
bath-school; and our young ones had a few 
poor children to teach on a Sunday in one of 
the cottages, which belonged to the estate, at 
the bottom of our orchard at Wick." 

Upon the death of her brother, she took his 
four sons into her family; and a son of her 
own was added to her charge, who was bap- 
tized by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards 
the excellent Bishop of the Church of Eng- 
land in Calcutta. This child died in his 
infancy, and about the same time one of the 
children from India was removed by death. 
But it was not long before she received under 
her care two daughters of her former friends, 
the Rev. David Brown and his wife, of Cal- 
cutta, who had been left orphans. 

A visit to a manufactory in Worcester, which 
Mrs. Sherwood made in company with Mr. 
Wilberforce, was the origin of her tale entitled 
" The China Manufactory." And having made 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 129 

a journey to France, it was her observations 
at the celebrated cemetery in Paris which led 
to the writing of her three little works, "Pere 
la Cfcaise/'^The Infant's Grave/' and "The 
Blessed Family." From the instructive stories 
she was in the habit of telling her young 
household in the dusk of the evening, came 
another of her celebrated books, the title of 
which is, "The History of Henry Milner, a 
little boy who was not brought up according 
to the fashions of this world." To this book 
she afterwards added, " The History of John 
Marten, a sequel to Henry Milner." Her 
"History of the Fairchild Family" was "in- 
tended to show the importance and effects of 
a religious education." Mrs. Fry, the philan- 
thropist, being on a visit to Worcester, the 
two benevolent ladies found much that was 
congenial in their characters. Mrs. Sherwood 
says : — 

"We went first to a public breakfast, and 
afterwards to the gaol. In the drive to the 
prison, Mrs. Fry kindly selected me for her 
companion in the carriage. As we drove along 
our subject of discourse was, the danger of 
celebrity, for females especially, and she at 
once and candidly confessed that she was in 
a situation of greater temptation than myself, 



130 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

though, as she kindly said, a known personage, 
as her acts and deeds brought her so much 
into public. On arriving at the gaol, there 
was an immense crowd to meet her, and many 
of the principal county magistrates to hand 
her out and conduct her through the courts 
and offices. She was a fine, composed, ma- 
jestic woman, and it was most interesting to 
hear her address, which she gave from the 
chapel, in the preacher's place, a clergyman 
of the Church of England standing on each 
side of her." 

Mrs. Sherwood's largest work, "The Lady 
of the Manor," was in progress of publica- 
tion at this time. The avowed object of this 
work, which extends to several volumes, was 
to prepare young persons to make intelligently 
and sincerely the religious profession made in 
the English and other churches, in what is 
called Confirmation; and furnishes explana- 
tions of the great doctrines and duties of 
Christianity, in the author's favourite method 
of stories and conversations. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 131 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE REGIMENT AT WORCESTER — HEBREW " TYPES" VISIT TO 

THE CONTINENT — M- MALAN — "THE LITTLE MOMIERE" — SIR 
WALTER SCOTT. 

Some years after their retirement in the 
country, the regiment with which Captain 
Sherwood had been so long connected, hap- 
pened to be stationed in the neighbourhood of 
Worcester. This gave occasion for an inter- 
resting scene which is thus described. 

"It was when my three elder daughters 
were just advancing to womanhood, that we 
had an invitation from Major M'Caskill to 
visit our beloved 53rd regiment, then stationed 
at Weedon Barracks, and we took these our 
daughters with us. We found our friends 
residing in large and elegant quarters in the 
same building as the colonel, and we were 
most warmly welcomed and hospitably enter- 
tained. What a strange revulsion, what a 
violent flood of old feelings burst upon my 
mind ! the past, as it appertained to my Indian 
life, seeming to roll itself into one with the 
present. 

"On the Friday, in passing through the 
hall, I found it half filled with officers and as 



132 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

many as eight members of the band, ah wait- 
ing to see me. The youths stood together, 
and as I went up to them they gathered round 
me and formed a circle, their eyes sparkling 
with pleasure. They were all full grown, 
tall, military men, finely drawn up, and well 
acquainted with what was due from themselves 
to me. 

"For an instant I knew not one of them, 
but soon I recognized in them the babes I had 
nursed, and dressed, and lulled to sleep, and 
the boys I had taught whilst yet scarce able 
to lisp their letters. The finest, or at least 
one of the finest among them, for they one 
and all looked well, came forward and told me 
who he was, ' William Coleman.' Then came 
Flitchcroft, who had been one of my particular 
nurselings; Elliot, who had the same especial 
claim on my regard ; Roberts and Ross, Hart- 
ley and Botheroyd, and not one of these had 
even one parent. 

"I cannot say what I felt, but I own I was 
relieved when the meeting was over, and I 
could retire to pray and weep for my orphan 
boys. Our first introduction was in the far 
off East, our second in England, and once 
more we shall be united, through our blessed 
Redeemer, in glory, where together we shall 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 133 

join in one eternal strain of praise. Such a 
minute is worth many, many petty annoyan- 
ces. How gratified was I to hear the most 
favourable account of these boys, and that 
they did credit to the very great care that had 
been bestowed upon them!" 

Among the pursuits of the happy house- 
hold at Wick was their united study of the 
Hebrew language. Mrs. Sherwood had formed 
the opinion that there was to be found in the 
original language of the Old Testament, such 
a correspondence between the words used by 
the sacred writers in their types or figures, as 
would amount to a distinct prophetical lan- 
guage. She designed to study these terms till 
a complete typical dictionary could be formed. 
As this was a laborious work, she trained her 
daughter to assist her in it, and her husband 
entered into the plan with so much interest 
that he gave ten years' labour in compiling 
a Hebrew and English Concordance for the 
assistance of his studious family. 

After time had diminished her household 
cares, by the growing up of her daughters and 
adopted orphans, and by discontinuing to 
receive pupils into her house, Mrs. Sherwood 
accompanied her husband and younger chil- 
dren on a visit to the continent of Europe. 

12 



134 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

This was in the year 1831 — 2. Her inter- 
views with M. Malan at Geneva were greatly 
blessed to the enlightening of her views in 
some points of doctrine, in regard to which she 
had been in the habit of writing and thinking 
with obscurity. 

" We met M. Malan at his garden-gate ; he 
received us with a smile of beaming kindness, 
and addressed us in English, which he spoke 
exceedingly well. He took us into a parlour, 
which was hung with an arras of landscapes in 
oil colours, wrought by his own hands ; for he 
is highly skilled in painting and music. When 
we were seated, after a while he told me that 
he knew me well by name ; and he told me 
also that he objected to a passage in my 6 Church 
Catechism Stories,' in which I had asserted 
6 that Christ, instead of acting according to 
the will of the Father, had, as it were, by in- 
terposing himself between the Father and the 
sinner, compelled him to have mercy. 7 How 
kindly, and yet how decidedly, did this enlight- 
ened Christian point out my error, proving to 
me that our Saviour is the exponent of his 
Father's love, not the procuring cause of it; 
for what saith the Witness — 'God so loved 
the world, that he himself gave us his Son for 
our salvation.' I recalled to mind that once 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 135 

before I had been told that my views of the 
Father were very defective, and I prayed that, 
if I were blind as to the truth, my eyes might 
be opened. 

"M. Malan was scripturally grounded in 
his views of the perfection of the divine work, 
as it regarded the elect, and of the perfect and 
entire safety of those individuals who are 
adopted into the body of Christ, and of the 
total impossibility of their ever being suffered 
finally to fall away, and hence of the absolute 
duty of entertaining the doctrine of assurance. 
On this point, that is, in showing the fulness 
of Christ as regards his own chosen ones, and 
the perfect confidence such should place in 
him, M. Malan 'worked hard to instruct my 
young ones, and what he said was blessed not 
only to them but to me." 

" In measure, as I see the non-conditionality 
of salvation to the child of God — a non-con- 
ditionality wholly built upon the fulfilment of 
all conditions by the second Adam, Christ, 
there is a cessation in my feelings, of what in 
former years had almost filled them. I find 
no longer any references to those weary and 
fruitless searchings for any good in myself, 
which are recorded in my old journals as ac- 
cruing day after day, and year after year, 



136 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

almost from my youth, till I was far advanced 
in middle age, with occasional strong expres- 
sions of hopelessness because I found it not, 
or sometimes those of self-satisfaction when 
any flatterer told me that I had found what I 
was searching for. But when I was blessed 
by clearer views of the work of the Saviour, 
and of the demerits of man — which views 
were first conveyed to my mind with clearness 
through the ministry of M. Malan — all these 
expressions of self-seeking, harassing fears and 
doubts, suddenly disappeared from my diary. 
Though I know that human agency unassisted 
can do nothing, yet I must ever believe and 
say that M. Malan was, by the divine blessing, 
made decidedly useful to me, and also to my 
dear daughters ; and to this hour such as are 
left with me on earth will bear witness to the 
same." 

It may be stated in this place, that it was at 
one time boasted by the Universalists of the 
United States that Mrs. Sherwood held their 
opinions. On this supposition, some persons 
of that denomination sent her a present of a 
large parcel of their books, splendidly bound. 
It is due to her memory to insert what she 
wrote respecting these volumes and the source 
from which they came. 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 137 

" The books were from a numerous party in 
America, called the 6 Universalis ts,' from which 
I disclaim all connection, as I believe their 
doctrines, as far as I know them, are a denial 
of the Holy Scriptures, as they say that the 
mercy of God is bestowed upon man without 
the ransom being obtained by Christ. These 
persons, in their journals, have declared me, 
and also my daughter Sophia, members of 
their body; but we wrote at once to disclaim 
it, though I have reason to think our letters 
were never published. The works sent, though 
finely got up, were hateful to us from their 
sentiments; and Dr. Streeten closed the par- 
cel up again, and forwarded them to a gentle- 
man in Bristol who had dealings in America, 
who promised to return them from whence 
they came ; and so it was done. It was for 
the purpose of declaring that my whole trust 
and confidence are on the righteousness of my 
Divine Saviour that I then set to work to 
write a statement of my belief, which I did in 
the story of Evelyn, in the third volume of 
6 The Fairchild Family.' " 

At the suggestion of some Christian ladies 

in Geneva, "The Little Momiere" was written 

to explain some singular customs of that 

country, and especially to exhibit the religious 

12* 



138 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

disadvantages under which some classes of the 
children were labouring. From Switzerland 
the travellers proceeded to Italy, and spent 
the winter in the city of Nice. They then 
crossed to Holland, and took a steamboat from 
Rotterdam for their home. This voyage was 
memorable from the fact that as a passenger 
in the same vessel with them was Sir Walter 
Scott, who was then sinking into the condition 
of mental imbecility which continued until his 
death. Mrs. Sherwood gives a notice of his 
case, which is calculated to give the most 
solemn impressions of the truth that the 
reason, and all the powers by which man must 
understand and act upon the claims of his 
Maker and Redeemer may cease long before 
death; and therefore, that among the risks 
which they are incurring who neglect the 
proper preparation for eternity, is the loss, not 
only of life, but of the faculties by which the 
gospel doctrines are embraced and followed. 

" Sir Walter Scott was returning with his 
son and daughter from Naples, where he had 
received such honours as are only paid usually 
to crowned heads. They had given a mas- 
querade, to which he was invited, in which all 
the characters were personifications of his own 
heroes and heroines. The cup of adulation 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 139 

had been tendered to him, filled to the brim 
and running over. Report said that he had 
been taken ill at Nimeguen on the Rhine, and 
the conducteur of the vessel, which had brought 
us to Rotterdam, had been up and down again, 
and had brought down his party now. When 
we were on our way to the steamer that was 
to take us to ' The Batavier,' we first saw Sir 
Walter. On the beach was a wooden pier; the 
packet was drawn up close to this pier, whereon 
was the barouche in which lay the invalid, 
from which they had taken the horses, and 
boards had been placed, so as it could be 
wheeled on deck without disturbing the sufferer. 
The hood of the carriage was up behind, and 
the front open. A bed had been spread in it, on 
which lay Sir Walter ; his fine head, that head 
aforetime the seat of high conceptions and 
glorious imaginings, being covered by a black 
velvet cap. 

" What were our thoughts, and those of all 
who possessed feeling and reflecting minds on 
board the packet, as we stood looking on the 
helpless inmate of that carriage ! Is this, then, 
the end of that fine mind, whose imagination 
and powers have for the last twenty years 
employed and charmed the attention, I may 
say, of thousands of the human race, ay, and 



140 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

of its most intellectual members ? Oh, how 
should this solemn example of the perishable 
nature of all earthly endowments lead one, and 
those especially in the decline of life, to inquire, 
How have I employed the gifts which the Al- 
mighty has thought fit to bestow upon us ? 

"When the carriage was placed on board, 
there was a solemn silence for some minutes. 
The gayest, the most thoughtless amongst us, 
seemed struck with awe ; and I really think 
we should have felt less, if an actual corpse 
had been brought before us on its bier. 

"On a nearer view, we all thought that we 
should have recognized the face from the many 
portraits which have made the world familiar 
with the features ; but, alas ! the light which 
even those inanimate representations conveyed, 
where was it now ? That dire disease, which 
was soon to bring him to the tomb, left only 
the outline of what that face had once been; 
whilst the dark plaster, fixed over where 
leeches had lately drawn the blood from the 
temples, contrasted sadly with the general 
paleness. 

"He seemed to lie awhile in total uncon- 
sciousness, his eyelids falling heavily ; but at 
length he raised them, and spoke to a very 
attentive servant who was ever near him ; but 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 141 

still there was no animation in those eyes ; — 
there was no play in those pale features, but 
a stiffness and rigidity, which gave no hope 
of more than a very temporary recovery. One 
anecdote will show to what an extent the ill- 
ness then afflicted him. A sudden squall 
coming on, the umbrella, which had been 
placed to protect him from the gusts of wind 
or spray, was suddenly blown into the sea and 
floated away out of our sight ; but of this he 
appeared not aware, nor did he seem to feel 
the inconvenience that resulted, though it took 
some minutes to provide another. 

" The fatigue of the moving, it seems, how- 
ever, distressed Sir Walter; and when he was 
lifted from his carriage, and borne in a chair 
to his cabin in ' The Batavier,' it was said he 
was ill again; and a Russian physician on 
board was applied to, who administered with 
success for a time a soporific draught. On 
awaking, he called for pen and ink; and it is 
in vain for me to try to paint my feelings, 
when it was asked of me to give up the imple- 
ments I was using at the moment, for the 
benefit of the eminent invalid. It was a high 
gratification to be able to meet his wishes." 

It was in June, 1832, that the party returned 
to their home in Wick. They resumed their 



142 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

task upon the dictionary of Scriptural types — 
a work which occupied part of Mrs. Sherwood's 
time for the remainder of her life. 



CHAPTER XYII 



VISIT TO BRIDGENORTH — REMNANTS OF THE OLD SABBATH-SCHOOL. 

To persons advancing in life, one of the 
most interesting and solemn employments is 
to look back to their younger and more active 
days, and meditate upon the changes which 
time has produced. It is a motive to spend 
life usefully and well, that if we are permit- 
ted to reach such an age, we may not have 
the remorse of knowing that it has been 
wasted in selfishness. The Sabbath-school 
teacher may well think, as he surveys the 
children under his care through successive 
years, "What will they be when they are men 
and women? What effect will my instructions 
have upon them ?" It is their future condition 
and character, even more than the benefit of 
the passing day, that should impress teachers, 
parents, and all who have an opportunity of 
influencing the young, with the solemn respon- 
sibility of improving every opportunity of 
doing them good. 



LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 143 

We have seen how impressed Mrs. Sherwood 
was on meeting, in the camp near Worcester, 
the young men whom she had taught as boys 
in India. But a more striking example of 
the effect of time was witnessed by her, when 
she visited, in 1833, the village of Bridgenorth 
where she and her sister had taught a Sab- 
bath-school in 1797 — thirty-six years before. 
We must insert here her own account of this 
visit, not only for its interest as a narrative, 
but for the useful suggestions it must furnish 
to all classes of our readers, and especially to 
those connected, whether as teachers, or learn- 
ers, with Sabbath-schools. 

"It was in March, the year following our 
return from the Continent, that I went to visit 
my brother at Bridgenorth, where a circum- 
stance happened that I shall now relate. I 
have mentioned, in the early part of my diary, 
that my sister and myself had a Sunday- 
school in our youthful days at Bridgenorth, 
and now it so fell out, that one evening, 
whilst staying at my brother's, I was called to 
speak to a poor woman, called Elizabeth 
Hughes, formerly one of our old scholars. In 
truth, she had been under my sister's tuition, 
not mine; but she remembered me with affec- 
tion, and came to see me. I engaged her to 



144 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

take the management of a tea party, in some 
house, in which she* was to invite all my own 
and my sister's old pupils who could be found. 
March 24th was the day fixed for this meet- 
ing, and my kind sister-in-law, Mrs. Butt, had 
some large cakes made; and provided with 
these, properly conveyed before us as signs of 
our approach, she guided me to Mrs. Hughes' 
house, which is in a row on a ledge of the 
rock on which the town stands, at the entrance 
of that elegant place called 'the Cartway/ 
Mrs. Butt went with me to the door, and 
witnessed the meeting; for the company had 
already arrived. Be it remembered that those 
I then met had all been in the freshest bloom 
of childhood and youth when I had seen them 
last, and as bright and sparkling girls I had 
remembered them all. But I confess I re- 
ceived a shock when I found myself encom- 
passed by a number of elderly, nay, in some 
instances, really old-looking women. I was 
thrown aback, touched with some sad reflec- 
tions, from which I did not immediately re- 
cover. But if the officers had difficulty to 
restrain their feelings when they saw my 
meeting with those fine young men of the 
band in the hall at Weedon, youths whom I 
had nursed and fed in their orphan infancy, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 145 

this meeting with these poor women was quite 
too much for Mrs. Butt, who turned away 
weeping, though not in sorrow. My hands 
were caught and kissed, whilst every eye ran 
down with tears. I could not let it so pass, 
and I kissed them all; though for me to recog- 
nize the individuals present was impossible, 
and I did not pretend to do it. 

"At length we were seated, I with my 
pupils about me, though some of these, having 
lived lives of hardship, unquestionably ap- 
peared older than I did; for age had then 
dealt gently by me, and I looked, as many 
told me, much younger than I really was. 
My first questions, when we were all placed, 
was to ask 'who was who?' and, as the 
answers were given, I tried to discern the 
resemblance of the persons then presented to 
me to the fair girls recorded in my memory, 
and eminently fair some at least had been. 
There were only eight present, all that could 
be found from our once large school. 

" The scene was most affecting. We spoke 
of days long past, and of former trials inci- 
dent to youth, in which the Almighty had led 
us on through dangerous paths, and in much 
darkness, into that glorious light, in which, 
as far as I could ascertain, most of us were 
then standing through infinite mercy. 

13 ° n 



146 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

" Elizabeth Hughes told me, that after my 
sister and myself had left Briclgenorth, never 
to live there again, the girls of the first classes 
had often gone, on a Sunday evening, to a 
round hill, which may be seen on the right 
from the castle, and there prayed for us, and 
prayed that they might never forget the things 
which we had taught them. 

"She told me, too, that often when at 
Malta she had looked toward the east, and 
thought of me and prayed for me. Oh ! how 
does piety ennoble the lowest individual ; how 
does it bestow an elegance of mind in the 
most unpromising conditions ! But, I ask, in 
what consisted the power of the instructions 
which we gave those young people? In 
reply, I should say that the strength of the 
impression which our instructions made was 
owing, with the divine favour, to the hold 
which we were enabled to take on the affec- 
tions of the children. The love of us, inferior 
as it was, became a law to them in a very 
decided sense; for, as the poor women told 
me, all agreeing in the same tale, it was a 
constant habit amongst them, after we were 
gone, when called to trial, to say, 'We must 
not do so and so, because it would grieve our 
ladies.' 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 147 

"If, then, the love with which one human 
being is able to inspire another is so superior 
in its efficacy to any legal motive, how much 
more is that love which is divinely inspired 
predominant, and efficacious in producing good 
feelings and acts of moral righteousness? Is 
not love, even between man and man, the ful- 
filment of the law? 

" The scene that evening was most affecting ; 
we sang many hymns, which I have ever 
loved, in strains which, awakened now, have 
power to carry me back to years long gone 
by. We spoke, too, of pleasures past; of 
delights that had left no thorns on the brow, 
or in the heart. At seven o'clock we parted, 
assuredly never more to meet again on earth." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FAMILY CHANGES — " DICTIONARY OF TYPES" — DEATH. 

Mrs. Sherwood's advancing age witnessed 
the usual vicissitudes of life. Her daughter 
Emily died in childhood. Her daughter Lucy 
died in the first year of her marriage. Her 
eldest daughter was the wife of a clergyman 
in Staffordshire. Her only son was married, 
and also became a clergyman. Her youngest 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

daughter Sophia was married to Dr. Streeten, 
and after his death to Dr. Kelly. After the 
death of Lucy, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood left 
Wick, and removed nearer Worcester, where 
Dr. and Mrs. Streeten resided with them. At 
the age of seventy-four, she pronounced her- 
self a very happy woman, having many 
domestic blessings still continued to her, and 
her faculties so little impaired by time that 
she could read the smallest type and write 
four or five hours a day. At this time she 
would express her thankfulness to God by 
singing the tunes and hymns she had learned 
in India, chiefly from Henry Martyn. She 
numbered among her special mercies that 
the life of her husband was continued, and 
the last record she made in her journal was 
(under the date of 23d of January, 1847) 
the quotation from Isaiah, " Thou wilt keep 
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 
thee." 

The power of the faith thus expressed was 
soon tried. In April, 1848, Mr. Sherwood 
had a severe attack of illness which made him 
an invalid for the rest of his days. In April, 
1849, his son-in-law Dr. Streeten died. Upon 
this event, the united family removed to 
Twickenham, near Richmond, in Surrey, 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 149 

where Mr. Sherwood terminated a long and 
suffering illness in December, of the same 
year. Mrs. Sherwood's daughter Mrs. Street- 
en, afterwards Mrs. Kelly, speaks as follows 
of the manner in which her mother bore the 
bereavement of her companion of forty -seven 
years : 

" She was grateful for our consolation, happy 
in our attentions ; and when my beloved aunt 
was called home, we had the gratification of 
knowing that my mother's mind was happier 
and more at rest. She could now sing to her- 
self my father's favourite hymns, and read in 
his Bible from the very place where she had 
left off reading to him aloud. Generally, I 
may say, she was cheerful, but, alas ! at other 
times she was very often depressed and timid, 
and we used to find it almost impossible to 
bring her back to a tranquil state of mind. I 
remember well one night when I slept with 
her in town she was very restless; she had 
been the day before to Doctors' Commons, to 
prove my father's will, and no doubt had been 
much distressed by it. And in the night she 
told me that she was happy and content about 
her departed friends, whom she was assured 
she should find again in Him who is all in all; 
that she rejoiced even in her widowed state, 

13* 



150 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

and could thank God to think that her beloved 
husband had gone first, and that he had not 
been the left one, as she was. Even for her 
elder children she was satisfied ; but she had 
one heavy care she could not endure, the 
thought of leaving me, her youngest child, to 
mourn her loss, and but for this she w T as ready 
to depart and be with Christ." 

She persevered in her study of the Scrip- 
ture types, until March, 1851, when her great 
task was finished by the completion of the 
first draught of the " Type Dictionary." This 
employment cheered her old age, and diverted 
her mind from dwelling too painfully on her be- 
reavements. In a letter written during this 
period she remarked : — 

" When I am sad, I find such lovely things 
concealed under the figures of natural things, 
that I am ready to w r eep for very joy ; they 
are like violets hidden under dark leaves, or 
precious stones buried in the rock. These 
divine mysteries, when opened out, show more 
of the fragrance and splendour of the beloved 
Lord, than aught which Scripture presents to 
the outward observation even of the most at- 
tentive, yet it is only as through a glass very, 
very darkly, that the most humble and perse- 
vering student can discern any of these mys- 



LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 151 

teries. Of one thing, however, I am more and 
more assured, that the deeper w 7 e are enabled 
to look into Scripture, the more we discern of 
the love of the Saviour, and the more readily 
and cheerfully commit the interests connect- 
ed with our departed ones to his gentle 
hand. All those we lament had their weak- 
nesses aud infirmities when on earth, but He 
w r ho redeemed them never changes; with him 
is no spot or stain of sin. He has said, <I 
come not to condemn, but to save the world/ 
Very sweet thoughts are sometimes vouchsafed 
to me, and when I take a pen in hand, per- 
haps I sometimes become tedious in recording 
them." 

Mrs. Sherwood was now in her seventy 
sixth year; but her mental activity did not 
cease. Her last employment of a literary kind 
was in making a dozen penny books, illus- 
trating as many prints. But her strength was 
gradually failing, and on the 24th of Septem- 
ber, 1851, she was released from the body. 
The last intelligible words which she was heard 
to utter, were, " Remember this, my children, 
that God is love : He that dwelleth in love 
dwelleth in God, and God in him." 

Mrs. Sherwood's writings fill sixteen volumes 
printed in the smallest type ; and bej^ond all 



152 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 

the praise that they deserve for the talents 
they exhibit, and for the interest which their 
narratives have awakened in such multitudes 
of readers in various languages, is to be 
placed the fact that their aim is to promote 
the knowledge and practice of true religion. 
It was more directly for the benefit of the 
young that her mind was kept in such activity 
for so many }^ears ; and it was to this class of 
her fellow-creatures that she devoted most of 
her benevolent care as a teacher, and her 
charity as a philanthropist, both in England 
and India. 

Yet Mrs. Sherwood had the cares of a wife 
and mother resting upon her; and for many 
of her most active years she was living in a 
climate where there is everything to tempt 
one to consult one's ease, and where, as an 
officer's wife, she could have obtained every 
indulgence of this kind she could have reason- 
ably desired. Her example, under these cir- 
cumstances, in devoting herself to good works 
with a zeal seldom witnessed excepting in 
those who consecrate themselves wholly to a 
missionary life, ought to arrest the attention 
of Christian men and women, who suppose 
they cannot, or ought not to, undertake the 
more active duties of religion as one of the 
constant occupations of life. 



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